There is a downside to the monthly subscription. It means you only get 1500 crowns each month - if you need more for a limited time mount, you have to purchase more crowns.

Now, with the 3-month and 6-month on PC, you get all crowns up front, so with 6 months you receive 9000 crowns.

This happened to many of us with the first limited edition mount that came out shortly after console launch. It came out just before the monthly renewals, so no console ESO+ member had more than 2000 crowns (1 month plus 500 for buying the game) when the mount was available. This meant that we all had to purchase additional crowns just to get it. If we had been able to purchase 3-month or 6-month subscriptions, we'd have had enough to get it with our membership.

I think it's intentional so that you'll sub and buy crown packs as indicated above. ZoS is unlikely to change it b/c its part of the business model. Sucks for us though.

SLy_Kyti wrote: »

MisterIdentical wrote: »

Okay, I've read a lot about this but I would love to see a staffer respond.

Why is the Xbox One limited to one month of ESO plus? I buy my live annually because it always seems to be due a couple of days before I get paid. Why on earth isn't this possible with ESO plus?

I mean, is there a reason you DON'T want me to spend $150 upfront?

Can't you add time cards to your account? They seem simple enough to purchase around where I live and on amazon. Just asking, as I'm not on console. Then you could load several months worth.

I could be completely wrong but I thought they did away with all the time cards?

I agreed but if they did that I would still like to get my crowns monthly instead of getting them upfront because I would be way to tempteded to spend them all haha

MisterIdentical wrote: »

Okay, I've read a lot about this but I would love to see a staffer respond.

Why is the Xbox One limited to one month of ESO plus? I buy my live annually because it always seems to be due a couple of days before I get paid. Why on earth isn't this possible with ESO plus?

I mean, is there a reason you DON'T want me to spend $150 upfront?

They did not answer.

As I understand it, ZeniMax is not selling ESO Plus subscriptions on the consoles. Sony and Microsoft are selling ESO Plus subscriptions and ZeniMax gets a cut of what they charge. I think that ZeniMax can go to them and suggest different subscription lengths, but it is Sony and Microsoft that decide what to sell.

(Edit: This is the #2 reason why I do not have ESO Plus on the console, only on PC/Mac)

BluSpixMacaw wrote: »

Well that stinks because I purchased a $50.00 Microsoft card because it shows underneath where it shows the $14.99 a month that you can use a code option yet when you enter the Microsoft Card code it's does nothing except refund your money back. I called Microsoft about this issue and they said the only way to purchase ESO Plus is to pay for it through either a credit card or debit card which sucks because I don't have either one of them.

Hmm...it's unfortunate, and surprising, that MS doesn't allow payment methods other than debit/credit cards for ESO+, but I guess it's because they've set it up as a monthly sub, so they want to have a card that they keep billing.

I also don't like that they decided on strictly a monthly model. On PC, the advantage was having all your Crowns up front, but also, there was a discount to the 3-month and 6-month subscriptions ($13.99/mo. for 3-months and $12.99/mo. for 6-months, if I recall correctly).

Violynne wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

As I understand it, ZeniMax is not selling ESO Plus subscriptions on the consoles. Sony and Microsoft are selling ESO Plus subscriptions and ZeniMax gets a cut of what they charge.

This is backward.

Zenimax sells the ESO sub and MS and Sony get a percentage of the sale.

That's because publishers can't sell to console players directly since all transactions are done over their service (PSN or Xbox Live).

It's why you can't buy a subscription directly from the ZoS website, which will direct you to the appropriate console store.

That's because consoles are now license machines, not game consoles like they used to be.

Welcome to the digital world of corporate greed, and that's exactly what it is. There's no excuse for gamers not to be able to buy directly from the publisher.

I am just going by what I was told by someone who is familiar with how this console racket works. The exact details between ZeniMax and the consoles are privvy information that I do not have, and you can take the information I received based on exactly what you paid for it.

Unlike a retail store, there are no physical cards exchanging hands. ZeniMax does not have to transfer anything and everything is handled by agreement. As I understand it, what happens is that ZeniMax authorizes Microsoft and Sony to sell these things, then gets $X whenever Microsoft or Sony sells it. Everything you are charged beyond that goes to Sony and Microsoft.

Edit: And yes, this is so that Microsoft and Sony can continue to get revenue from additional purchases after the sale.