Generally, I'm not sure whether we will even see a new zone. They said before that they thought about adding new content to existing zones - although I'm not even sure how plans might look like right now, as this year's content wasn't exactly well-received, mostly. Normally I'd expect the content of a new year to have been in production already many months earlier, but who knows, maybe they will restructure a few things now. At least I think that would be a smart decision not to alienate players even further.

Thevampirenight wrote: »

Just wanted to get an idea what you guys think may happen next year. Hammerfell is very unlikely, and off the table (because its the obvious tes 6 location which is why they won't do hammerfell)

They could try to market ESO together with TES6, as "explore Hammerfell (and more) in the 2nd era and learn about the origin stories of some things you see in TES6" (at least that's what I'd do), so I wouldn't rule that out.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

My biggest fear is that they’ll do Solstheim in the future.
Here’s the thing: I love Solstheim. Two of my characters are Skaal. But I do not trust the current team to be able to do it justice at all.
Solstheim, at this point in 2E, has literally nothing. Skaal Village is there, the All-Maker stones are around, and that’s it. Thirsk isn’t founded until Hrothmund the Red at the beginning of 3E. Fort Frostmoth is built well after that as the Imperial home of the East Empire company to oversee the construction of Raven Rock in 3E 427. None of these settlements exist in 2E. And as for Skaal Village, that’s not a hub city, it’s a handful of homes living in isolation. If anything, it’s closest to the Nord village on Solstice (which itself exists for some reason…)
If they did Solstheim, I’d want it to feel isolated. Don’t give it a zone story, just have a series of dailies for the Trials of Aevar Stone-Singer and that’s it. I’d actually be intrigued if they designed it to have a max size of 12 players so it feels really isolated, and make it the “frontier zone” like OG Craglorn. That I would accept.
But shoehorning some inanity like Eveli Sharp-Arrow complaining her way through some contrived story where the Skaal need to help pull Stibbons out of Lady Laurent’s buttocks while Raz tries desperately to get the player in bed with him? 🤮

What we'd see would most likely be Solstheim filled with settlements of all of Tamriel's cultures and the Skaal will explain to you that it's important to be tolerant towards all religions, and also protect the environment because that's the correct thing to do (and in no way religiously motivated). Rigurt will most probably bother them with some inane nonsense, but that's okay because they love and tolerate everyone. Then, in some barrow, Sanguine will invite you to some happy party where you can dance and then leave if your feet start to hurt and you feel slightly tired. When you finally return to the village, you will have Jakarn waiting for you, yelling "Hey good-looking!" and inviting you to share a bed. Wonderful.

I'm glad there probably won't be another Morrowind chapter sometime soon, because I don't want to see a region I care for wasted with that kind of writing.

Whatever it is i won't be buying it until it's at least half price going by this years complete dissapointment.

Thevampirenight wrote: »

Just wanted to get an idea what you guys think may happen next year. Hammerfell is very unlikely, and off the table (because its the obvious tes 6 location which is why they won't do hammerfell) though I added it into the poll, so there is only so many locations left. Where do you think ESO will take us next?

You're assuming we get a new zone next year. Until ZOS says otherwise I'm assuming nothing is coming down the pike. At the rate things are going I'd say we'll be lucky to get much at all in the area of new content next year.

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

Why do you claim Hammerfell is not an option because of TES 6

ESO already has a lot of Hammerfell in it, Alikr' Desert, South Bangkorai, Craglorn and Hew's bane make up about half of Hammerfell.

They are obviously being careful to add more hammerfell because the lore and background is being written right now for TES VI and they dont want to contradict anything...PLUS before or during or after the release of TES VI they will most likely add same / similar zones to ESO so both games can promote each other.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

So... in case anyone hasn't noticed, there's a new cave somewhere in the world that's currently inaccessible. One that didn't really exist before U48.

Rawl'kha, back behind the enchanting area

I remember that the little Worm Cult shrine outside of Windhelm and the cave under Northpoint were there a patch or two early so we did have a hint that way about where the prologue for Solstice was going.

Based on that, it seems like that could be an area used in the next Prologue, so if U49 drops with a prologue for an U50 zone like standard, that does give a bit of a hint where U50's potential zone might be. Assuming, of course, that they're going to stick with a standard sequence, which is not at all a guarantee.

Still, It does make me think that yes, a specific zone will be coming at some point next year.

I still want them to just contrive an excuse to give me an Artificer Class though. Or any Class for that matter.

this cave? it is also on Playstation so no idea when it was added, but cannot be u48.

i also hope we eventually get an Artificer class, could happen regardless of zone (might not even release in an update with a zone if it gets added)

LunaFlora wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

So... in case anyone hasn't noticed, there's a new cave somewhere in the world that's currently inaccessible. One that didn't really exist before U48.

Rawl'kha, back behind the enchanting area

I remember that the little Worm Cult shrine outside of Windhelm and the cave under Northpoint were there a patch or two early so we did have a hint that way about where the prologue for Solstice was going.

Based on that, it seems like that could be an area used in the next Prologue, so if U49 drops with a prologue for an U50 zone like standard, that does give a bit of a hint where U50's potential zone might be. Assuming, of course, that they're going to stick with a standard sequence, which is not at all a guarantee.

Still, It does make me think that yes, a specific zone will be coming at some point next year.

I still want them to just contrive an excuse to give me an Artificer Class though. Or any Class for that matter.

this cave? it is also on Playstation so no idea when it was added, but cannot be u48.

Does it have a name on PS? Because it does have a name on PC, and I don't remember that name being used before and I can't find anything about that cave's name now, so it hasn't been used yet...

LunaFlora wrote: »

no name for the cave on Playstation no

So yeah, that is new in U48...

I guess that's a pretty good indicator that we will have a prologue coming, so I guess "New Zone sometime in 2026" is confirmed.
EDIT: see below. Nevermind.

so it turns out that Rawl'kha cave is part of one of the new New Life Festival quests

I think they'll have to do something special given what's happening to New World. I don't particularly like Daedric stories, but it's bound to be daedric because that's the lore and part of what makes ESO unique, like khajiit and argonians.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

so it turns out that Rawl'kha cave is part of one of the new New Life Festival quests

ah, ok that must be it then. I forgot about the new ones.

Welp, back to "we don't know anything" then.

Damnit Tom. You pulled me out of my bad mood for a minute there. Oh well. To be fair, I hope I'm just being jaded at the mess of this year and they're gonna pull something fantastic out of their hat and blow us all away.

Edit to refine my thoughts.

Here's a reminders of stuff from last year's letter that we might get in 2026.

Increasing the difficulty of standard overworld combat

Improving the overall feel of combat with animation, FX, and potentially audio work

Experimenting with more zones like Craglorn (although not as large in area or scope), created exclusively for high-end group and soft-group content with associated gear chase

Adding and refining tools to make guild recruitment, interaction, and management easier and more logical

With the changes to our content release model, please be assured that we are not abandoning new quest content – but we will do it in different ways than we previously have. As our focus will not be on adding giant new landmasses – although we will do that from time to time – instead, we will use existing zones and areas to tell new stories.

Some of these are:
Continuing the stories in existing zones and storylines and bringing back familiar characters
New stories focused on hallmark Elder Scrolls organizations like Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Fighters Guild, and Mages Guild
Splitting a large zone across multiple updates

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/670691/studio-director-s-letter-2025-beyond/p1


Personally, I'm expecting an adventure zone that is light on story. And then new quest content is existing zones alongside the release of the overland difficulty shaper.

That's just me personally. I think Blackmarsh would make sense for a small adventure zone but it could be anywhere really. Solstheim for Skyrim's anniversary would also make sense.

I know what I'd LIKE to see, which is a new, underwater kingdom, Atlantis style, revealed by some mishap. Maybe that snooty mage guy whose name I never remember gets mixed up in finding the door to this kingdom and in some kind of act of ineptitude inadvertently summons Sithis. And the balance of life and death then goes completely put of whack (or something) and the rest of your adventure involves argonians and miscellaneous characters trying to sort it all out but for personal, things-at-stake-for-the-characters' actual lives reasons, not monster of the week reasons. Hey, maybe you could even develop snooty mage into a complex character.

But then I love ESO most when it's completely fresh and I think that's when it's been its absolute creative best. I think I'd roll my eyes if it was Skyrim again.

But, as others have said, they have said they want to revisit the existing zones, and there's also been talk of what sounds like Craglorn-type content.

Part of me hopes the Argonians will get a full DLC for themselves, Murkmire was only a small zone after all and in other places they always have to share the spotlight. But I feel like Skyrim is a good possibility and I'd be fine with that as well. Part one would be the big middle area with Whiterun as main city and second part could be Winterhold. We don't have enough winter zones imo so I'd be totally on board with Skyrim.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Well that was the letter for Dec 2024. I forgot to clip that out. That's probably referring to Solstice.

ETA
The Dec 2024 letter described things we could expect in 2025 and beyond. Some of it has already been delivered. Some most of us are expecting in 2026. Like Overland difficulty increase was originally supposed to drop 2025 so it seems likely that we'll get in 2026.

I wonder if the various Field Marshall some of us are fighting in the delves and public dungeons in base game zones are the test of the Overland difficulty increase. I would not be surprised to see those Field Marshall "renamed" and released as part of the Overland difficulty increase.

I'm hoping that the couple random blurbs about breaking away from the time-stop bubble leads to us finally seeing Bleakrock being rebuilt. And leading eventually to Winterhold. Wish I could check more than one box, as Sostheim I'd like to see at the same time, or as a followup to filling in Skyrim.

[edit] A rebuilt Falkreath tossed in there as well, beginning just after the Falkreath Hold dungeon timeline.