Official Feedback Thread For 2026 ESO Reveal

BoloBoffin · January 8

So, the cheapest way to get top level of access to everything is:

$150 12-month subscription
$90 plus 12-month-sub token for four seasons a year

$240 US a year

From:

$150 12-month sub
$40 upgrade (well, that was the plain upgrade, not the collector's edition)

around $200 US a year

If you only did the middle tier, that would be $45 extra, plus one season at the top tier for free - about the same money as now.

So, the question is, is each season's bonus item (plus faster Tome Point earning on top of faster rate from ESO+) worth $15 more per season for you? The first season is the Raynor's Traveling Costume.

BoloBoffin · January 8

Cruxanero wrote: »

Why was there no mention about new permanent story content? Shifting the FOMO from cosmetics to actual story content is like the worst idea I've ever heard.

They briefly mentioned new story content. In Season One, there will be a new story line for the Thieves Guild and another one starring Sheogorath.

duagloth · January 8

Totally the wrong direction

Whizzinglane · January 8

I was truly excited for this year's reveal. Until I was not. This could have been done via an email. Everything whizzed by. A lot was introduced without detailed explanations. What is the future of ESO? What happened to the ESO I fell in love with on the outset?

The chapter model, was it not successful? Summerset, Morrowind, Blackwood, Greymoor? I truly enjoyed the aforementioned chapters. What I love most about ESO is that it keeps the medieval world alive for me; it takes me into a world where I can Roleplay to my heart's content. I am a knight in a time past, where honor and integrity reign supreme.

At the onset, the game was about players. The community felt alive. We players helped each other. The game was challenging. It felt great to be a knight, to be a Dragonknight and a Templar (my Paladin). The game was converted to One Tamriel. We understood this because it is a business. ZoS (Bethesda) needs to make money. One Tamriel attracted new players and became less challenging. Even then, we supported you, ZOS. What we, old timers, simply asked for was a "difficulty" slider for overland areas. Not too much, right? (PvP is another matter entirely, where many old-timers quit the game). We asked and begged for this difficulty slider; it seems an eternity now. Can it not be in the first major update? This upcoming one? And what about "Pure Class" enhancement? Will that be in the first major update, too? Can you add new spells for the sorcerer?

Anyway, in order to grasp the whizzing information during the reveal, I took screenshots so that I could follow along. You said you are being transparent, ZOS. Where is the transparency? You presented a lot of information in so little time–all crammed in less than an hour–a new WAY forward in less than an hour.

You are overhauling the game. You are making some quality of life changes (which I support wholeheartedly), while some things will be experimental? This year is supposed to be the beginning, for last year was transitional. I play WoW; I play Diablo. I play Faullout. Why is Eso a mish-mash version of those games? Please give ESO its own identity. The game just needed tweaking or fixes from the many feedback we provided.

We players, especially old-timers, gave you feedback, ZOS; most fell on deaf ears. Most of us do not want seasons. Diablo is there for that for me, and even with Diablo, there are expansions. I have been an ESO PLUS subscriber since 2014; I started paying monthly then switched to a yearly subscription. I am one of the players who wishes the game to thrive both in the spirit of it and financially. I have bought Notable homes with crowns to further support the game. ZOS, please try to understand your player-base. Please listen to our feedback and give us new areas to explore, new lore, revive the old zones with fresh stories.

Please know that I welcome the new story mode and single player dungeons. The golden pursuit has always felt like a chore for me. Add contests: fishing, housing, overland pvp that can happen spontaneously.

Each season last three months, right? How are we to pay? Are we to pay per season? Is ESO Plus now a year-long subscription? I watched the livestream. It could have been a pre-recorded one or an update via email. Please rectify. Provide us information for the here and now; that way, we can understand your vision and support the game we love for decades to come.

[My apologies for the wall-text]

Edited: corrected typo: Morrowind*

Lagzee · January 8

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi Everyone! Thanks for tuning in to the 2026 ESO Reveal Stream. If you missed the live show, the VOD is available to be viewed here.

With the reveal stream finished, we now want to hear from you! Let us know what you think about what's in store for ESO in 2026. The things you like, dislike, or have general questions about. This is your thread to communicate your initial thoughts about the new Seasons Model, New Systems (like Tamriel Tomes and Gold Coast Bazaar), Quality of Life changes, etc. with the forum community and ESO Dev team. We will use commentary posted here as a reference point for communication between now and Season Zero/ Update 49 release.

We also have a longer survey for those interested in giving us feedback on how you feel about the stream generally and the content plan for 2026. You can fill that survey out here.

Your constructive feedback* and questions will let us know what information we can better clarify leading up to launch and beyond. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on all of the 2026 content! Also feel free to participate in the poll as well!

*Friendly reminder to keep the Community Rules in mind when replying. Thank you!
PC Players, remember you will be able to check out Update 49 on PTS this coming Monday! We look forward to hearing your feedback there as well.

Hi all, we have added articles for some of the items talked about today. We will also have more livestreams over the next few weeks and months to talk about more content.

Seasons: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69137
Tamriel Tomes: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69141
Gold Coast Bazaar: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69139

no new pvp zone. no new pve zone. more animation changes no one asked for, and while they do look good who knows what issues they will cause. Will it really be good for performance to have more flashy animations?? This is crazy.

No new dungeons. no performance updates. 2-3 years, apparently, for every class to get balanced. So 2-3 years of an extremely stale meta, devoid of class identity, because of subclassing.

Call me ignorant but, i just dont see why balancing the base game classes, to be on par with subclassing, should take 2+ years. The animations can wait. This is something you can actively change right now. Why not focus on the balance immediately and do the animations over time? I may be wrong about some things, but this is something i am 1000% convinced is a mistake. If you insist on updating animations, even though you shouldn't, balance should come first, then animations. The animations are not nearly as important as base classes being on par with subclassing.

Also solo dungeons are a strange choice. What is the point of a solo dungeon? Just seems like a waste of time. You can solo easily on normal already, and its a challenging thing that some people like to do on vet. No new class is a massive letdown for many people. A battle pass leaves nearly everyone skeptical and wary.

Also adding in more ways for people to travel around cyrodiil faster is a strange choice. The entire map is covered by travel points. If anything we need less travel options, mainly the ability to que out in combat. But the attention to pvp is a huge W, and it is much appreciated. Especially the bringing back 3 sided bgs.

But where is the excitement for this year? Where is the reason for the people who have been leaving this last year to come back? veteran players returning will still see the same old stale meta from subclassing, and find the classes they used to love still useless, and the casual players returning will see less content than ever before.

There are good things of course but what is lacking is very concerning. I appreciate the quality of life changes, I do, i just think its bad timing to cut back on content after last year. I just really hope the roadmap is not revealing everything. Because more than anything what this game needs is to bring back players that left, especially in this last year, and get new players to hop in. And i dont see how this does any of that.

laurajf · January 8

I used to get stupidly excited for every new year and the new latest and greatest thing shown, and I would blindly preorder and buy crowns whenever they would go on sale for the new stuff coming up. Then for the last few years, I would end up disappointed because while the concept was great, the execution was horrible in the end, with the end product consisting of either heavy grinding or just unpleasant gameplay or disappointing end result of whatever it was.

I admit to getting excited for the first time in years seeing this right after the live stream. I was ready to jump back into the game and continue leveling my new characters. After a few hours, though, my old pessimistic self resurfaced (pessimistic per the optimistic people in my life, although I consider myself a realist).

I will sit back and watch before I jump back in and definitely not spend any money yet. They have some proving to do first.

Turtle_Bot · January 8

My (early) 2 gold:

Cautiously optimistic with what was announced this reveal. The real proof will be (as they say) in the details (i.e. actions and continued improvements in these directions will need to back up these words).

Early thoughts:
- QoL changes are amazing and many long requested.
- Communication definitely feels a lot better, a lot more professional (like it's devs talking to us, not so much friends). It gives me some hope for the future, but as I said before, the proof will be the actions done and the continuation of this direction.
- Battle pass (while I am not a fan of them personally), seems decently laid out (the game-play aspects are all free and it's only cosmetics that will cost money, which is a much fairer monetization practice imo).
- Still reserved on the class changes (I have made many in-depth comments with my concerns on these in other threads, so won't repeat here).
- The QoL changes show that feedback is starting to be listened to. Hopefully ZOS can continue this, especially taking on board the feedback and concerns surrounding the class reworks (something I wish there was some more details given for the future classes beyond DK, even if it's less specifics and more general adjustments).
- The road-map shows a direction and while some details are still missing, it is nice to have a direction/plan/details again beyond just "wait and see".

Overall, what has been proposed here (especially if followed through) definitely feels (to me) much more like the transition year (for the game) we were supposed to get in 2025. While I'm actually optimistic about proposed changes for the game for the first time in a while, I am still watching with some caution, waiting to see if it will be followed through.

The iron is hot and ripe for shaping, now (this year and beyond) is the time to strike and follow through with what has been put forward and the direction given.

Also, want to thank @ZOS_Kevin for his continued/continuing efforts on the improved communication front, glad to see it looks like there's finally a team behind him fully supporting him (with direct this is their jobs) in this endeavor.

Glad to see the clarifications being given promptly especially regarding questions around access to content expiring, from the above clarifications:
Gameplay aspects (stories/quests, gear/power, etc.) of the season passes will not expire, the only thing that expires it seems are the cosmetic rewards.

The one question @ZOS_Kevin I have still about the battle pass (Tamriel Tomes) is the ability to grind this content. Will it be possible for someone who is taking a break (for whatever reason) to be able to purchase the pass near the end of the season and still be able to grind and get all the cosmetics or will it be like a lot of the golden pursuit quests that require doing a daily log in or daily activity once per day for the majority of the time period?
There are upsides and downsides to both sides of this, but the option to not miss out if something happens irl that prevents logging in for 2/3 months but also the ability to take it slowly instead if desired would be nice to have, especially in the time-poor world we currently find ourselves in.

Tommy_The_Gun · January 8

I just realised something & it is both hilarious & scarry at the same time.

The stream literally starts with age restrictions of 17+ but... it is immediately followed by 18+ due to "online purchase"... yeah that happened... not the best way to start a stream that shows this year new game features

ZOS_Kevin · January 8

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

Also, want to thank @ZOS_Kevin for his continued/continuing efforts on the improved communication front, glad to see it looks like there's finally a team behind him fully supporting him (with direct this is their jobs) in this endeavor.

Glad to see the clarifications being given promptly especially regarding questions around access to content expiring, from the above clarifications:
Gameplay aspects (stories/quests, gear/power, etc.) of the season passes will not expire, the only thing that expires it seems are the cosmetic rewards.

The one question @ZOS_Kevin I have still about the battle pass (Tamriel Tomes) is the ability to grind this content. Will it be possible for someone who is taking a break (for whatever reason) to be able to purchase the pass near the end of the season and still be able to grind and get all the cosmetics or will it be like a lot of the golden pursuit quests that require doing a daily log in or daily activity once per day for the majority of the time period?
There are upsides and downsides to both sides of this, but the option to not miss out if something happens irl that prevents logging in for 2/3 months but also the ability to take it slowly instead if desired would be nice to have, especially in the time-poor world we currently find ourselves in.

Just wanted to clarify two things. First, thanks for the kind words. But I always want to stress that this is an entire team effort. The entire community team has been working for months on getting this stuff ready. In addition to many teams. But I will pass the kind words to the team!

To answer your question, once you own the premium pass, you can tackle it however you want. It does not expire. So if you get halfway through the Tome and the take a year break, you can come back and continue where you left off. You can do that regardless if you buy it at the start of the season or on the last day.

BoloBoffin · January 8

I'd bet that people playing the free tier of a Season will get a final "50% off" price (or some sort of discount) to unlock the Tome permanently, say, in the last two or three days. You wouldn't get the benefit of the faster rate of currency for long, but you'd at least have relieved that FOMO that had been building all season long...

hodgodeb17_ESO · January 8

So, they are just officially declared that ESO is dead. Thanks.

Vonnegut2506 · January 8

hodgodeb17_ESO wrote: »

So, they are just officially declared that ESO is dead. Thanks.

I don't think the word "officially" means what you think it means.

CMFan1966 · January 8

I'm sad to say this might be the end of the line for me. ESO has given me so much in the last 10 years. It helped me mourn my late husband. It helped me get through cancer treatments. It gave me what I hope will be life long friendships. It introduced me to the man I now love with all my heart. With all that being said, I don't know if I can throw money at something that doesn't guarantee me new content, new stories and lore and things that I'm not sure are mine to keep or not. Battle Passes seem to be temporary things to get you to keep paying and paying and paying like games with "gacha (gotcha more like) mechanics and I won't do that. If I'm buying content, I want to keep said content after all these years. Not have to give it back because I ended my subscription. That's how all this seems to me. I wish all of you well and maybe I'll return once these weird business practices are a thing of the past.

Erickson9610 · January 8

I'm incredibly excited for the new Werewolf updates! Players have been asking for an updated model (as well as a female variant) for several years now, and it's finally happening! I also can't wait to try out the balance changes to Werewolf.

hodgodeb17_ESO · January 8

Vonnegut2506 wrote: »

hodgodeb17_ESO wrote: »

So, they are just officially declared that ESO is dead. Thanks.

I don't think the word "officially" means what you think it means.

Just because you don't know what it means doesn't mean everyone doesn't know, boy;)

hodgodeb17_ESO · January 8

Erickson9610 wrote: »

I'm incredibly excited for the new Werewolf updates! Players have been asking for an updated model (as well as a female variant) for several years now, and it's finally happening! I also can't wait to try out the balance changes to Werewolf.

Excited with what? For dogs with boobs, really? xD

SummersetCitizen · January 8

The stream itself gave low-energy, book club meeting… reading PowerPoints.

Not exciting at all to me.

erebus_79_ESO · January 8

Just increase my ESO+ sub by $5/mo and include the base premium pass. Make premium+ upgrade $15 for ESO+ players

i_azazei_i · January 8

erebus_79_ESO wrote: »

Just increase my ESO+ sub by $5/mo and include the base premium pass. Make premium+ upgrade $15 for ESO+ players

No, they took away the dlc incentive. Keep price the same and add the pass to it. Otherwise all eso+ is worth is the craft bag

spartaxoxo · January 8

CMFan1966 wrote: »

I'm sad to say this might be the end of the line for me. ESO has given me so much in the last 10 years. It helped me mourn my late husband. It helped me get through cancer treatments. It gave me what I hope will be life long friendships. It introduced me to the man I now love with all my heart. With all that being said, I don't know if I can throw money at something that doesn't guarantee me new content, new stories and lore and things that I'm not sure are mine to keep or not. Battle Passes seem to be temporary things to get you to keep paying and paying and paying like games with "gacha (gotcha more like) mechanics and I won't do that. If I'm buying content, I want to keep said content after all these years. Not have to give it back because I ended my subscription. That's how all this seems to me. I wish all of you well and maybe I'll return once these weird business practices are a thing of the past.

I'm sorry for your loss. I'm glad to hear that the game was able to bring you so much. Just wanted to clear up that the battle pass is just cosmetics, and you'll keep what you earn, afaik. The thing that will go away is the event quests/zone but that's always been the case with events.

ESO_player123 · January 8

erebus_79_ESO wrote: »

Just increase my ESO+ sub by $5/mo and include the base premium pass. Make premium+ upgrade $15 for ESO+ players

No, thanks. I have more mounts and motifs than I can realistically use. So, I'm not interested in paid tiers of the Battle pass. However, I do keep ESO+ while I'm still playing and would not want its cost to be raised.

LadyLethalla · January 8

More housing slots and the Dragon's Treasure Trove!!!

TheMajority · January 8

10/10 totally pumped, you covered nearly my whole wishlist of things I wanted fixed in the game. So excited to play.

Cruxanero · January 8

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I'm sorry for your loss. I'm glad to hear that the game was able to bring you so much. Just wanted to clear up that the battle pass is just cosmetics, and you'll keep what you earn, afaik. The thing that will go away is the event quests/zone but that's always been the case with events.

The difference is that with the old event quests you could be certain they'd return at some point. I was very busy the last weeks so I couldn't play a single of the newly added new life quests, but I can be sure they'll be around next year, waiting for me. Same with Jester, Witches quests etc.
The writhing fortress quest? Gone after a week (even though they'll bring it back, but only because it was completely bugged). The new event zone? Might be brought back, might as well not.
This is a serious issue for me as well. It was very refreshing that ESO never had these big "limited, once in a lifetime story events" other games like to do, and a major reason I've been a subscriber and bought every chapter for more than 10 years, while many other games came and go in the same timeframe.

ZOS_Kevin · January 8

Cruxanero wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I'm sorry for your loss. I'm glad to hear that the game was able to bring you so much. Just wanted to clear up that the battle pass is just cosmetics, and you'll keep what you earn, afaik. The thing that will go away is the event quests/zone but that's always been the case with events.

The difference is that with the old event quests you could be certain they'd return at some point. I was very busy the last weeks so I couldn't play a single of the newly added new life quests, but I can be sure they'll be around next year, waiting for me. Same with Jester, Witches quests etc.
The writhing fortress quest? Gone after a week (even though they'll bring it back, but only because it was completely bugged). The new event zone? Might be brought back, might as well not.
This is a serious issue for me as well. It was very refreshing that ESO never had these big "limited, once in a lifetime story events" other games like to do, and a major reason I've been a subscriber and bought every chapter for more than 10 years, while many other games came and go in the same timeframe.

The Night Market, the new event zone, will return. We have that noted on the roadmap. It is designed to come back.

DenverRalphy · January 8

SummersetCitizen wrote: »

The stream itself gave low-energy, book club meeting… reading PowerPoints.

Not exciting at all to me.

I actually quite preferred this format over past reveal streams.

Though I will say that I'm convinced the stack of cards Gina and Jessica were holding were just props. The rate at which they would cylce through them was crazy inconsistent with the discussion cadence.

Cruxanero · January 8

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

The Night Market, the new event zone, will return. We have that noted on the roadmap. It is designed to come back.

Thanks for the clarification!
May I still ask for a detail that was said in the stream? There it sounded like "if the players like the new event zone (I don't know if it was the night market, but I think so - there were so many topics that were only brushed over...) we will bring it back in the future, possibly even make it a permanent addition to the game". That implies the possibility though that "if the players don't like it, we will just never bring it back". Is that also a possibility?

ZOS_Kevin · January 8

DenverRalphy wrote: »

SummersetCitizen wrote: »

The stream itself gave low-energy, book club meeting… reading PowerPoints.

Not exciting at all to me.

I actually quite preferred this format over past reveal streams.

Though I will say that I'm convinced the stack of cards Gina and Jessica were holding were just props. The rate at which they would cylce through them was crazy inconsistent with the discussion cadence.

I can assure you, they were not props. I think we all wish they were. Staples probably hated us that morning trying to print that many cards.

FoJul · January 8

So basically, what I got from this stream (without being too harsh against Zos developers) is we kept hearing the repeated words transparency. This is one thing the community has been wanting for years. Even mentioning some QoL updates that we have been asking for. This is the right step forward in my opinion.

However, most of the updates that we will get are obviously pointed towards casual/new players. This is cool, but when you talk about rereleasing old items that might have been missed via events from the past and stuff via the Bazaar, essentially you are just giving another pay option to get stuff I'm proud of having as a long-time player. Will this mean you can just buy exclusive event stuff?

Additionally, like @React asked before, you guys weren't really "transparent" on the whole vengeance and the mid-size PvP mode. Kind of shifted me back in the corner thinking we have been ignored as a PvP community once again.

And finally, class rebalance/restructure/recolor whatever you want to call it. It's kind of sad that balance is being milked so much. The balance is so out of touch and lack of transparency and feedback from the past created this monster, and we have to wait what seems to be 2 years to see it fixed. Balance that starts with 1 class per cycle is unfair and will not fix any balancing issues until every single class finally gets addressed, which is awhile from now. I know this isn't my game, but I hate this.

I would like to know if you guys will seriously consider feedback on the class changes, and what measures we need to take as a community to feel heard on the matter. If you do this correctly for each class, I believe the game will be very good going forward and the wait just might be worth it.

Overall, the QoL features are nice, and the stream was ok, but above is some things I didn't fully understand. The new monetization seems ok but wasn't really my flavor. And that's ok. I can deal with it.

ZOS_Kevin · January 8

Cruxanero wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

The Night Market, the new event zone, will return. We have that noted on the roadmap. It is designed to come back.

Thanks for the clarification!
May I still ask for a detail that was said in the stream? There it sounded like "if the players like the new event zone (I don't know if it was the night market, but I think so - there were so many topics that were only brushed over...) we will bring it back in the future, possibly even make it a permanent addition to the game". That implies the possibility though that "if the players don't like it, we will just never bring it back". Is that also a possibility?

Yes, that is true. But the assumption is, if players overwhelmingly did not like the activity, you would not want to play it again anyway. We don’t want to force you to play a thing you don’t like. That isn’t fun for you and creates a negative play experience. But we envision those cases being outliers. If there is an aspect to something that we can change to make better, we would rather do that with player feedback. Again, going back to something Nick said, “building the game together with the players.”