some of you realize that b2p and f2p games generate more income than subscriptions do right??? There are people that will spend hundreds on in game items, hell there have even been people caught in china selling their children for in game pixels....

Kragorn wrote: »

Brandalf wrote: »

I think the entire conversion was due to Microsoft's refusal to waive their XBL fees. ZOS and Bethesda aren't stupid, they know that their potential playerbase would be crippled on the Xbox platform if players were required to subscribe to both XBL and ESO. So here we are.

If that's the case it's an appalling climb-down by ZOS, and one that I can only hope they live to regret.

Skyrim sold 60% of total box copies on Xbox 360.
It would be very stupid to keep Sub + Xbox Live, when that is their primary selling platform.
Hell PC was only 15%, I hate to admit it but this being a TES game, we are in a minority here.

Sure I'd like if ESO stayed P2P (I will keep subscribed for months to come), but we were all kinda expecting the Subs to drop because of Console players. I think there is a reason why FFXIV isn't on Xbox.

lordrichter wrote: »

Extremeties wrote: »

WraithAzraiel wrote: »

Check the article: https://games.yahoo.com/news/see-awaits-elder-scrolls-online-152430165.html

Yahoo! wrote:

The Elder Scrolls Online did not have a glorious first year; while the MMO counts around a million current subscribers, ......

Thoughts?

As much as I like ESO, I find it VERY VERY hard to believe seeing as how most the VR zones, Craglorn included are all practically empty. I have literally gone through every VR zone to see if I could find ANYONE and I came across maybe 15 people MAX, again including Craglorn. Now I know there's different phases of each zone but come on.. 15 ppl max throughout all the VR zones and I check consistantly for my own knowledge. Now, if you go in to the lower non-vr zones, you see people but no where near a million+


My question is - How many devs do we have left actively working on making content for the game compared to what there was at launch?

On any given day, I see more than 15 people just farming Nirncrux. Considerably more than that in the main Craglorn village.

I do, however, wish they would open up Craglorn so that all Alliances are tossed together.

As for employee and staffing information, that will be viewed as none of your business. You are more likely to learn actual subscriber numbers. That is assuming you can find a numerical system where 0 > 0.

Yeah see this is the thing, when I check the main craglorn village, I hardly see a couple people there consistently. I don't know what the deal is but I don't see anyone. In fact, ever since launch when people started getting into the Vr levels, I still didn't see hardly any people. Its very odd. I can see a good chunk of people in the non-vr zones but once I step foot in ANY VR zone, I see hardly anyone at all. Talking about discouraging. I don't know if its a different instance of the zones I'm in but every-single-time I check the VR zones and craglorn, they're completely dead

Brandalf wrote: »

Bloodfang wrote: »

Kragorn wrote: »

Brandalf wrote: »

I think the entire conversion was due to Microsoft's refusal to waive their XBL fees. ZOS and Bethesda aren't stupid, they know that their potential playerbase would be crippled on the Xbox platform if players were required to subscribe to both XBL and ESO. So here we are.

If that's the case it's an appalling climb-down by ZOS, and one that I can only hope they live to regret.

Skyrim sold 60% of total box copies on Xbox 360.
It would be very stupid to keep Sub + Xbox Live, when that is their primary selling platform.
Hell PC was only 15%, I hate to admit it but this being a TES game, we are in a minority here.

Sure I'd like if ESO stayed P2P (I will keep subscribed for months to come), but we were all kinda expecting the Subs to drop because of Console players. I think there is a reason why FFXIV isn't on Xbox.

There definitely is a reason, and I think it's a pretty obvious one. Not to mention it's an Eastern MMORPG and Xbox is not a very powerful brand outside of NA/EU.

Could be. But if FFXIV is currently on 3-4mil subs, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't give up on another 1mil+.
Especially when West is used to spending much more for a Sub than East.

I'm guessing it's the same thing as ESO, Microsoft wasn't willing to drop the Xbox Live fee. So they must've had 2 choices, drop the whole Xbox Platform or change the Model. Luckily for them they don't really need Xbox as much as ESO does.


"Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn director Naoki Yoshida has confirmed that the reason the game will be the 'odd one out' and the only upcoming entry in the series to skip Xbox platforms is down to Microsoft's ongoing Xbox Live policies.

"The policy has not changed on Microsoft's side," Yoshida revealed to us when asked if an exclusivity deal had been signed with Sony alongside the PS4 version or if the lack of an Xbox platform version was still thanks to Microsoft's restrictive Xbox Live Policies."

They should have went with a b2p/premium sub hybrid from day one. Everyone told them a sub only game made no sense and would be very very difficult to keep up with. Content that takes months of developing and QA the players will burn through in a couple of hours. Then they unsub until new content comes out. If you arent putting out new content every 6-8 weeks you will not keep people subscribed.

Heck 3-4 million is a number basically all NA based MMOs would love to hit. As far as I know the only one who has those kind of numbers in NA is WoW.

Kragorn wrote: »

Bloodfang wrote: »

Brandalf wrote: »

Bloodfang wrote: »

Kragorn wrote: »

Brandalf wrote: »

I think the entire conversion was due to Microsoft's refusal to waive their XBL fees. ZOS and Bethesda aren't stupid, they know that their potential playerbase would be crippled on the Xbox platform if players were required to subscribe to both XBL and ESO. So here we are.

If that's the case it's an appalling climb-down by ZOS, and one that I can only hope they live to regret.

Skyrim sold 60% of total box copies on Xbox 360.
It would be very stupid to keep Sub + Xbox Live, when that is their primary selling platform.
Hell PC was only 15%, I hate to admit it but this being a TES game, we are in a minority here.

Sure I'd like if ESO stayed P2P (I will keep subscribed for months to come), but we were all kinda expecting the Subs to drop because of Console players. I think there is a reason why FFXIV isn't on Xbox.

There definitely is a reason, and I think it's a pretty obvious one. Not to mention it's an Eastern MMORPG and Xbox is not a very powerful brand outside of NA/EU.

Could be. But if FFXIV is currently on 3-4mil subs, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't give up on another 1mil+.
Especially when West is used to spending much more for a Sub than East.

You clearly have no idea about Square Enix's customer-base nor their experience with FFXI and FFXIV.

Hint: their biggest FFXIV 'region' isn't Japan and the Far East.

It was a principled decision by SE, they had no intention of 'ghetto-ising' their players based on M$ dictats, and I for one applauded them for putting principles about $$$.

And yes, 3-4m is a sub. number ZOS could only ever have dreamed of.

I also applaud them, but let's be honest no matter how you slice it, that's a stupid business decision. It's a great stand from a publisher to say they're not going to bend to Microsoft's will, but Publishers are in the business of making money and just forgoing a large portion of potential income is stupid from a business standpoint.

Also as a sidenote: the game has 4 million registered accounts, that's all we know for sure. We have no idea how many active accounts there are.

Brandalf wrote: »

Mumnoch wrote: »

Hey some people consider 10,000 subscribers to be "around" a million hehe.

Course with the prudish style the armor designers are taking this game coupled with the destruction of a entire class (Sorc) and the FU they told the community I imagine it's going down.

I love my Sorc, and ZOS stated during the beta phase that the Orc "boob window" was going to be removed, yet they had more important things to do and it got put on the backburner. People need to also keep in mind the redesign came about along with a massive improvement in texture quality for both Redguard and Orc armor(especially Orc medium armor!). ZOS decided to kill two birds with one stone. TES games have always been about function over form when it comes to armor design(for the most part), so this should have come as no surprise to anyone.

I can only assume you have never played other TES games with your "function over design" statement. It is this game that is going the prudish, ugly, boring, "scared of female skin" route, sure all TES games have had some prudish, ugly, boring, "scared of female skin" options for the puritan's out there this is the first TES game that doesn't cater to everyone's idea of "fantasy armor".

I'm not the only one that thinks this either, and I'm not the only one trying to get ZOS to fix this "it's ok to show masculinity in male armor but we're not going to show femininity in female armor, let's keep them looking like nuns!"

Seraphyel wrote: »

Brandalf wrote: »

Also as a sidenote: the game has 4 million registered accounts, that's all we know for sure. We have no idea how many active accounts there are.

4 million accounts = 4 million sales - that's impressive for a sub based MMORPG.

__________

People who really think that ESO has + 1 million subscribers right now...

Please explain why Zenimax is leaving out $30-40 million on sub fees BEFORE the console version launches.

I imagine it was simply determined ESO would generate more revenue with this model. Entertainment products like games and movies have a very high price elasticity of demand.

If the retail price / subscription fees are very low, many more people will pick up the game, more than making up for lower margins on potential sales to people who might have been willing to pay more. Consider the popularity of cosmetic items in games that are free or inexpensive to purchase, but aren't pay to win, like MOBAs and Valve games, etc.

And notwithstanding claims we are beta testers for the console players, keep in mind the installed base for both Xbox One and PS4 combined are still relatively small. It is likely the majority of players will be playing on PC for quite some time.

The game is so much better than it was a year ago, so they should have a re-release party.

Wolfshead wrote: »

Xiana wrote: »

No way they had dropped P2P with one million subs ...

Again drop P2P was not ZoS idea the was more or less force by microsoft if want the game on Xbox One for microsoft did not want drop the own subscribe the have on Xbox One but sony was willing to drop there.

No. Let's make this clear: ZOS was not forced to drop P2P, because they had other options which they chose not to pursue:
1) To simply ditch console versions altogether, espcially the one for Xbox, because the console has lower market share. Other reasons are the fact that consoles are walled gardens and ultimately it's not hardware that sells software, but vice versa.
2) To keep subs nevertheless, because cash shop and optional subscription will still be available on consoles and whoever will spend on it will have to pay on top of MS subscription anyway. On the other hand, if they rely on box sales alone, then presence of optional subs, paid DLC and cash shop, is no longer something forced to them, but something they chose, out of greed.
3) To keep subs on PCs and drop it on consoles. Players will be separated by platform anyway, Xbox is no excuse for going P2W on PCs.