Official Feedback Thread For 2026 ESO Reveal

Wolfshade · January 8

Prize: 2025 - 79,00€ vs 2026 - 90€

Think it ends more Zone = Area but I like the Idea behind that new Area mit 3 fractions and the best overall is maybe the same releasedates for Pc and Consoles.

Backbar XP - surprising and funny

Raising the Caps are bound to Conditions on Eso+ ore Tomes?

The Rest...wait and see!

Malyore · January 8

I feel like half of the people posting in here didn't actually watch the stream.

Don't be too discouraged, Kevin.

Enodoc · January 8

So on the ESO Plus and Tomes stuff, while it doesn't appear to be the case at the moment, I think it would alleviate quite a lot of concerns about cost if ESO Plus included the Premium tier of Tomes as standard. This could either be instead of or in addition to the once a year Premium + Bonuses ticket, since that doesn't seem to be a good value for money reward for ESO Plus by itself.

Also I would recommend changing the name of "Premium + Bonuses Tome" as that seems to be causing confusion with the "Premium Tome". Free Tome and Premium Tome are fine, maybe call the top one just "Premium Plus Tome", or something completely different like "Mythic Tome".

DenverRalphy · January 8

SilverBride wrote: »

The more I read the less I like. My main concern, if I am reading this right, is that there is no more story, but just paid tasks for cosmetics? ESO is the story. I couldn't care less about cosmetics and certainly won't pay for them.

This is the third year where we are being given a lot of QOL things we have asked for forever, which is great but it does not replace content and the story.

The changes the past few years are taking us further away from what ESO is was. This is where I want some transparency. What is going on?

There is still story. Questlines, events, zones, trials, dungeons, solo content, group content, all of that.. nothing has changed on that front. Content will still be coming in. New zones replete with their own questlines and content as well. And all that content will be free for everyone.

They will simply not be all rolled up and stuffed into one big package each year.

Ei8htba11 · January 8

Still love ESO, but trust is shaky. Sounds like less advertised as more, at least that's my gut feeling. The content update schedule seems punishing (for the devs, hence my scepticism)

Erickson9610 · 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.

I made a thread talking about the revealed upcoming changes, and several others have voiced their opinions and suggestions as well:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/687224/thank-you-so-much-for-the-upcoming-werewolf-update

SilverBride · January 8

DenverRalphy wrote: »

There is still story. Questlines, events, zones, trials, dungeons, solo content, group content, all of that.. nothing has changed on that front. Content will still be coming in. New zones replete with their own questlines and content as well. And all that content will be free for everyone.

They will simply not be all rolled up and stuffed into one big package each year.

I hope so because questing and story are what I enjoy the most. And thank you for all the explanations.

Syldras · January 8

axan22 wrote: »

Also no mention of companions at all, when there were released it was going to be an ongoing thing get bigger and better, we got more of them that's all so far.

Honestly, when they made companions the examples for classes in that subclassing quest, I suspected it might be over with new ones. One per class, and that's it.

emeraldshado · January 8

Eternity_Was wrote: »

Please implement a voting system in-game to gauge feedback prior to major changes, so that even the most reclusive players can have input on our community as a whole

There should be another message board like the guild board in the Reachs' Markath City, for example, where people can go & give their response. I know a bunch of people that will never bother to visit the forums, and instead will just play another game. you could put the Administrative feedback board next to the guild traders in the 3 major cities, along with the next major zo.... oh.

Protoavis73 · January 8

Haven't played ESO over 2 years, just came back a few days ago (bought the Premium Edition as it was on sale on Steam) so I've got lots of things to do.
Watched the stream yesterday and I'm fairly postive about it all and might even keep me playing again.
Definitely going to watch how it all works out closely.

ArchMikem · January 8

LunaFlora wrote: »

thank you so much!
2026 is very exciting to me♥

i especially love that we will be able to Hide all Outfit pieces.

Ohhhhh....I completely missed that. That is going to open up some outfit doors without sacrificing stats.

Guys. I HAVE, to be suspicious though.

This just feels like a wrap up. They announce ALL of these QoL changes the community had been asking for years for. Now they tell us it's all coming at the same time, after having ceased the Chapter model. It's like others have claimed, this feels like the game is entering maintenance.

Sarannah · January 8

Seraphayel wrote: »

Everybody saying there is no new content, system or features coming:

Season 1 contains basically everything a regular Chapter for $40 would contain. And this time you get it for free.

Lets analyse that content:
-Group event zone: Events are not content. May or may not be available at times when you play. Content should always be available, events are temporary.
-Overland difficulty option... only few players want this. Personally I do not care about this at all. This is not content either, it is just a way to play old content(which I have already completed 100%).
*New stories & quest(thieves guild/sheogorath): This is new content.
*New system(sage's vault): This is new content, but no clue if it is anything good or how large/impactful it will be.
-Multi-stage cooperative events: Events are not content.
-New in-game event(high seas of tamriel): Events are not content. Though I am curious about this.
*New trial: This is new content.
-Large-scale world events: Events are not content.

Only the three starred things are actually content. Events are not content, they are two/three weeks of pastime. Not really sure why you are defending this, as this is nowhere near chapter level content or anywhere near previous yearly content(full zone+new feature+two dungeons+small zone). Someone posted the 2022 content pictures a few pages back, for comparison. Practically all outside sources are calling this maintenance mode and the end for ESO. Which is NOT what I want it to be, but I can't say they are wrong in thinking this. Battle passes are a negative thing amongst gamers for a reason.

PS: Would you consider the new life festival event content? Personally I don't. Events are lures to keep people in-game so they can check out the crown store and buy stuff. (which is probably why there is one placed in every season, and why we had so many events back-to-back on live recently)
PPS: Personally I do not care about what happens behind the scenes of a company, I look at the value of the service they are providing. Both the value of the service itself as well as their service compared to other similar services. And the correct value just isn't there from what I have seen, nowhere close even.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Sarannah wrote: »

Keep in mind, we are paying three times a normal chapter(expansion) price for this! Normally we get a full zone + new feature with a chapter for 40€, now we get practically nothing for 120€.

You don’t pay anything for the new content.

Yes, I know that tiny bit of content shown is free with seasons, never said otherwise. To have access to the entire game(including all cosmetics), one now needs to buy all the battle passes(tomes) as well. As those cosmetics are now behind three-monthly paywalls. Usually only the new chapter would be behind a paywall, and any deluxe cosmetics/pre-orders coming with that chapter would be. Nor would the crown store items be gone forever due to being on a cycle, while season's battle pass cosmetics will be gone forever once you miss out on paying for access to them.

Having many cosmetics(which I love to collect) behind multiple paywalls spread out over the year, is very different from a chapter paywall. As chapter(expansion) paywalls is what I expect from online MMO's. To now access the entire game, it will be 120€ extra per year, on top of the ESO+ sub fee. Whereas before, the ESO+ and the chapter itself would be the only things having to pay for. This is why I feel they are now squeezing me for every penny they can get from me, which is not how I want to feel when spending money. So I won't! (Note: I usually buy 5 to 8 of the highest 21k crown packs per discount period, which happens three or four times per year)

As I stated before, I actually don't mind paying more as I love ESO. But this isn't the way, as this feels like they are shaking me like I am a moneytree. And having been there as other games had battle passes, all I can say is that this does not look or feel good!

CAB_Life · January 8

I thought it was pretty good, albeit my expectations couldn’t have been lower. Nick seemed humble and like he understood the assignment. The producer likewise seemed passionate about her role. Lot’s of tuning and tweaks ahead and with a game this long-running and full of content that’s most of what the game needs: tuning.

I have battlepass fatigue, but I realize they need to make money somehow. All in all 7/10.

Cruxanero · January 8

That new story content is free in the future is concerning news, even though it saves me a lot of money. I'm not interested in cosmetics at all, so in theory I should be happy that I can save the money for future dlcs entirely now.

But if I had to choose between paying 90$ per year (additionally to ESO+) and getting extensive new story zones for it, or only paying for ESO+ and nothing else (saving the 90$ for cosmetics), but getting only a fraction of what we used to get as new story content, I would absolutely choose to pay an increased price for story zones. Sadly, that option is not offered anymore.

allochthons · January 8

Positives:

Reverting trading to 30 days. THANK YOU!
Adding Hew's Bane, Gold Coast and Orsinium to base game. THANK YOU!
Story mode for dungeons
(those are the three I've specifically asked for multiple times.)
Replacing event tix and removing the cap.
- but boo, adding a new currency. Not sure how to fix that, but event tix without a cap would do it.
Increasing Transmute cap.
Increasing Housing caps, and realizing that the inability to increase the limit on huge houses didn't stop you from increasing the limit on smaller houses.
Letting us see what's in the Premium Tomes before buying them. No more blind spending of money and hoping for getting our money's worth.
But ESO+ needs to get at least the Premium Tamriel Tome, every season, included.
Putting PC and Console on the same update schedule.
Finally updating werewolf. I hope they're actually good changes, but we'll see.
Pretty much everything in the Player Experience Improvements graphic.
Taking things like curse cures out of the crownstore, and being able to respec any time.
All new mythics will be available to everyone, taking away a major Pay-to-Win aspect to the game. That's a real win.
What are Dynamic Storms in Skyrim??!? I hope it's more than the harrowstorms being mobile!

allochthons · January 8

Negatives:

BATTLEPASSES. Okay, I know you have to monetize, and I'm not sure the Premium Tomes is a bad idea. But geez, you should NEVER have used the term Battlepass. Seasons is bad enough. Regardless of how you actually mean them, the kneejerk reaction to both of those terms damaged you.
New currencies. Always, always a bad idea. I get that you want people to start on a level playing field, so gold is hard to use in these cases. Find a way to do it anyway. More currencies is a horrible idea. How many is that, now? Gold. Tel Var. Alliance Points, Endeavors, Event Tickets (going away, true), Crowns, Crown gems. That is too many. Are we getting 2 new ones? Trade Bars and Tome Points? It's unclear.
Hide Legs. Started a thread on that, no need to go into it more here.
New Animations for the classes. I'm not actually against new animations. But we need a way to turn off the flashy. Really. WE NEED A WAY TO TURN OFF THE FLASHY. Why have we never seen this even acknowledged?
A second Transition year. 2025 was supposed to be the Transition year, now 2026 is as well. I give this a bit of a pass, though, since M$ fired so many developers.
As Sarannah said, "Disappearing story content, is another 100% big NO for me! Content should not appear and disappear, it should only appear."
Asking about a bunch of stuff in the survey you never gave details on. How do we know how we feel about the new trial? All we know is that a new trial is coming.
Not asking which (multiple choice) platform/realm we play on.
Nothing on decreasing/fixing the number of sets in the game. You complain about database size, but add 3+ new sets every season/chapter/etc.

I don't know how much endeavors and the crown store are going to change. But endeavors were added specifically because of a law regarding gambling/loot crates. The fact that endeavors doesn't give us access to *everything* in crown crates is definitely against the spirit of the law. Yes, we should still have to earn endeavors. But that we can only get access to a fraction of the best mounts and cosmetics with endeavors is wrong.

zenonuk · January 8

Sarannah wrote: »

-Multi-stage cooperative events: Events are not content.

My take/read of it, is that the multi-stage "world" events (using the terminology from the screenshot) are actually more akin to existing world events / incursions - dolmens, volcanic vents, etc. Maybe even something similar to the random encounters (e.g. dark fissures)... or combining both of these into a new type of event.

My hope is that these will be permanent, come with their own dailies, loot tables, etc. ... and therefore do classify as "content" and something that can tracked/cleared over time. Perhaps they'll even have their own achievements.

Obviously that's my interpretation of what's presented. They may indeed be one-off/time-limited events in the traditional "jester's festival" style events. I don't think we can draw conclusions one way or the other at this stage.

SilverBride · January 8

ArchMikem wrote: »

This just feels like a wrap up. They announce ALL of these QoL changes the community had been asking for years for. Now they tell us it's all coming at the same time, after having ceased the Chapter model. It's like others have claimed, this feels like the game is entering maintenance.

That is a big red flag for me, as much as I hate to admit it. I just don't want it to be so.

Ecgberht_confused · January 8

Usually new sets/mythics are tied to the new zone, dungeons, and trials. Does this mean 2026 will see a lot less new sets as well?

Seraphayel · January 8

Sarannah wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

Everybody saying there is no new content, system or features coming:

Season 1 contains basically everything a regular Chapter for $40 would contain. And this time you get it for free.

Lets analyse that content:
-Group event zone: Events are not content. May or may not be available at times when you play. Content should always be available, events are temporary.
-Overland difficulty option... only few players want this. Personally I do not care about this at all. This is not content either, it is just a way to play old content(which I have already completed 100%).
*New stories & quest(thieves guild/sheogorath): This is new content.
*New system(sage's vault): This is new content, but no clue if it is anything good or how large/impactful it will be.
-Multi-stage cooperative events: Events are not content.
-New in-game event(high seas of tamriel): Events are not content. Though I am curious about this.
*New trial: This is new content.
-Large-scale world events: Events are not content.

Only the three starred things are actually content. Events are not content, they are two/three weeks of pastime. Not really sure why you are defending this, as this is nowhere near chapter level content or anywhere near previous yearly content(full zone+new feature+two dungeons+small zone). Someone posted the 2022 content pictures a few pages back, for comparison. Practically all outside sources are calling this maintenance mode and the end for ESO. Which is NOT what I want it to be, but I can't say they are wrong in thinking this. Battle passes are a negative thing amongst gamers for a reason.

PS: Would you consider the new life festival event content? Personally I don't. Events are lures to keep people in-game so they can check out the crown store and buy stuff. (which is probably why there is one placed in every season, and why we had so many events back-to-back on live recently)
PPS: Personally I do not care about what happens behind the scenes of a company, I look at the value of the service they are providing. Both the value of the service itself as well as their service compared to other similar services. And the correct value just isn't there from what I have seen, nowhere close even.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Sarannah wrote: »

Keep in mind, we are paying three times a normal chapter(expansion) price for this! Normally we get a full zone + new feature with a chapter for 40€, now we get practically nothing for 120€.

You don’t pay anything for the new content.

Yes, I know that tiny bit of content shown is free with seasons, never said otherwise. To have access to the entire game(including all cosmetics), one now needs to buy all the battle passes(tomes) as well. As those cosmetics are now behind three-monthly paywalls. Usually only the new chapter would be behind a paywall, and any deluxe cosmetics/pre-orders coming with that chapter would be. Nor would the crown store items be gone forever due to being on a cycle, while season's battle pass cosmetics will be gone forever once you miss out on paying for access to them.

Having many cosmetics(which I love to collect) behind multiple paywalls spread out over the year, is very different from a chapter paywall. As chapter(expansion) paywalls is what I expect from online MMO's. To now access the entire game, it will be 120€ extra per year, on top of the ESO+ sub fee. Whereas before, the ESO+ and the chapter itself would be the only things having to pay for. This is why I feel they are now squeezing me for every penny they can get from me, which is not how I want to feel when spending money. So I won't! (Note: I usually buy 5 to 8 of the highest 21k crown packs per discount period, which happens three or four times per year)

As I stated before, I actually don't mind paying more as I love ESO. But this isn't the way, as this feels like they are shaking me like I am a moneytree. And having been there as other games had battle passes, all I can say is that this does not look or feel good!

I think you completely missed the point of these events. We‘re not talking about things like New Life Festival or Jester‘s or whatever all these holiday events are.

This events will be either like Writhing Wall, incursions, dolmens or whatever. I guess they‘ll be scaled up to fit what world event narrative. So it’s beyond me how you don’t rate this as content when it clearly is.

And only a few people want Overland Difficulty? You realize that it’s the most requested feature from the last years, by a huge margin?

Danikat · January 8

I was re-reading the news about the announcement and I noticed a discrepency, does anyone know if this has been clarified anywhere:

The image summary of ESO+ benefits says "Recieve a Premium+ Bonus Token every 12 months to use for any season" and the text below it says "One Premium Tome Token per month of membership - 12 tokens grants a free Premium + Bonus Tamriel Tome.

I realise for regular subscribers it's the same thing, but the top one makes it sound like you need 12 consecutive months of membership to get a premium token, whereas the bottom one sounds like the 12 months could be non-consecutive. Does anyone know which it is?

I also have a question (which at this point only ZOS could answer) about tome points: It's mentioned repeatedly that we can choose to spend our points on the currently available rewards or save them up until we unlock more pages, but can we also go back and unlock rewards we skipped on earlier pages? If I choose to save my points by not unlocking everything on a page then discover later in the season that I'm able to play more than I expected and have more points available can I go back and unlock some of the stuff I skipped at first, or will I have missed my chance?

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

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.”

What about people who aren't able to play (or haven't yet bought the game) during the release window? Are they just out of luck if other people don't like it?

Imperial City has never been especially popular, a lot of people don't enjoy the mix of PvE and PvP but the people who do really love it and can't get the same experience in any other part of the game. If it had been up to whoever happened to check it out when it was first released there's a good chance it would have been deleted after a few months and a lot of the people who enjoy it now would never have been allowed the chance to find out.

Also while it wasn't my favourite zone I did enjoy the main story quests and it would have been disappointing if I'd missed out on them just because I couldn't play it when it first came out or because it's not my favourite type of zone in general.

Seraphayel · January 8

@Danikat As far as I know each month of ESO+ will give you a Premium token. And with twelve months you can buy the Premium Plus pass. If you have a 12-month-subscription you just get all of the tokens at once and not on an annual or 3-month-basis, depending on your subscription plan.

allochthons · January 8

Danikat wrote: »

I realise for regular subscribers it's the same thing, but the top one makes it sound like you need 12 consecutive months of membership to get a premium token, whereas the bottom one sounds like the 12 months could be non-consecutive. Does anyone know which it is?

I'm fairly sure they said the months don't have to be consecutive.

SilverBride · January 8

Seraphayel wrote: »

And only a few people want Overland Difficulty? You realize that it’s the most requested feature from the last years, by a huge margin?

If you look at the overland thread, it's mostly the same handful of players on both sides of the discussion for most of the thread.

I see a lot more requests for increased housing slots and storage space than difficult overland.

DenverRalphy · January 8

ArchMikem wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

thank you so much!
2026 is very exciting to me♥

i especially love that we will be able to Hide all Outfit pieces.

Ohhhhh....I completely missed that. That is going to open up some outfit doors without sacrificing stats.

Guys. I HAVE, to be suspicious though.

This just feels like a wrap up. They announce ALL of these QoL changes the community had been asking for years for. Now they tell us it's all coming at the same time, after having ceased the Chapter model. It's like others have claimed, this feels like the game is entering maintenance.

In my experience, I have never seen an online game go out of their way to suddenly start patching and fixing their backlog before going into any form of maintenance mode. Instead they typically just quietly fade into the background and disappear and be done with it. Backlog be damned.

Seraphayel · January 8

SilverBride wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

And only a few people want Overland Difficulty? You realize that it’s the most requested feature from the last years, by a huge margin?

If you look at the overland thread, it's mostly the same handful of players on both sides of the discussion for most of the thread.

I see a lot more requests for increased housing slots and storage space than difficult overland.

These are completely different things. One is QoL and one is system / feature / content.

And guess what, we‘re also getting increased housing slots. So it’s not mutually exclusive.

SilverBride · January 8

Seraphayel wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

And only a few people want Overland Difficulty? You realize that it’s the most requested feature from the last years, by a huge margin?

If you look at the overland thread, it's mostly the same handful of players on both sides of the discussion for most of the thread.

I see a lot more requests for increased housing slots and storage space than difficult overland.

These are completely different things. One is QoL and one is system / feature / content.

And guess what, we‘re also getting increased housing slots. So it’s not mutually exclusive.

No matter what we call it, overland difficulty was discussed by the same handful of players for most of the pinned thread. I do not consider that a huge margin.

This_0ne · January 8

I'm afraid I didn't quite understand from what point in time it's possible to start receiving tokens for a subscription this year. My current subscription expires in February. And I'm not entirely sure if I should wait until April and take a couple of months off from ESO+ in order to fully take advantage of its new features.

tomofhyrule · January 8

.

This_0ne wrote: »

I'm afraid I didn't quite understand from what point in time it's possible to start receiving tokens for a subscription this year. My current subscription expires in February. And I'm not entirely sure if I should wait until April and take a couple of months off from ESO+ in order to fully take advantage of its new features.

It will start accruing with the U49 launch on March 9, based on the latest ESO+ article.

LouisaB75 · January 8

Mostly I am positive about the upcoming changes, but I am also confused about the way that ESO+ and the free tome after 12 months will work.

On the news page of the website, it says that "Note that a Tome’s free options and its two upgrades can be acquired only during its specific Season". However, the page also has the image from the stream that says to "use for any season". I also checked back on the stream itself and they do say that it can be used for any season too.

So, can you use it for any season's tome or not?

I am an ESO+ subscriber who pays on a monthly basis. So it would take a year to get that free premium tome. I would have hoped to be able to use it to get the one with the gorgeous wolf mount that was shown on the stream, but it will obviously be long gone by the time my 12 months has accrued.

Also, on a similar note, assuming that the answer is that you can only use your accrued free premium tome for either the current one or a future one, what happens to the progress bar if you decide to hold onto it because the current season doesn't have something that interests you? Does it stay locked at 12 months until you effectively cash it in, or does it continue to accrue points towards the next one?

Just be helpful to have some clarification when the information provided seems to be a bit conflicting.