You know, when I see something cool on another player now, my first thought isn’t “I wonder how they got that?” - it’s “I wonder how much that cost?”

Because of that, I honestly couldn’t care less about how much more they want to monetise the game. I already feel completely defeated by the whole thing.

I've enjoyed this game for years. But I don't know what ZOS is doing here. The game is just getting way too expensive. They need to pick either a subscription model or season pass, not both. I wish them luck, because I can't imagine new players being able to figure out what the heck is going on now.

Frayton wrote: »

Just when I thought I had Tomes figured out...

I thought the premium version of Tomes was going to be a part of ESO+. No? Is premium Tomes a separate thing we have to pay for? Also, premium Tomes and premium plus Tomes is confusing.

It's a little confusing but imo the stream slides did the best job at an overview and the articles and further talking was a bit more convoluted:



There are three tiers. Free is accessible to everyone and is supposed to give comparable rewards if not slightly better than the old endeavor system. Premium gives the paid track which is a lot of cosmetics and bonus premium currencies such as seals. Premium+ gives faster pass xp as well as bonus cosmetics bundled and related to the theme. You can see some of the bundle cosmetics in slide two. If you buy either premium version you can unlock things on the reward track permanently at your own pace, but free tomes will have a sesaonal duration.

ESO+ will gain additional pass xp and after 12 months of ESO+ you earn credit to get one Premium+ pass for free. Personally this is where I get annoyed with the new system and I think they could afford to be more generous since ESO+ has bled value in recent years but it is what it is. Price points for tomes are $15-30usd per season. 2026 is going to have three I think? So eso+ players should get one for free if they are a yearly subscriber.

I'm actually excited about the new direction. They are modernizing ESO to compete with other current and upcoming MMOs. And let's be realistic, a large portion of gamers don't want to pay for anything and want everything handed to them, they have no idea how much an MMO costs to maintain, nor do they seem to care... which if they did, they might realize exactly WHY MMOs constantly seek additional revenue. Look at New World... it's done the end of 2026 as they didn't make enough money to maintain itself BECAUSE they didn't really have any type of constant revenue stream. ZOS stated years ago that ESO+ doesn't make enough to maintain the game, which is why they added more store items and crates. Many players claim they want ESO to continue for years, but then complain about having to pay additional for things or complain when ZOS adds more sources to increase revenue. ESO isn't free to maintain, it costs a LOT, and obviously they need to make a profit, otherwise risk going the way of New World. If Microsoft determines that ESO isn't making enough to justify continuing, then that's exactly what's going to happen. I have personally spent thousands on ESO since 2015, I feel I've gotten my money's worth because of the number of hours I've spent playing. I don't mind spending more IF the game continues in a direction that keeps the game fun for me... which last year it didn't. I think with the change in leadership, it seems to have brought new life to the game... and based on last PTS, they actually seem to be listening to player feedback- which was missing for so many years. So I have hope for the future, as long as they continue in this current direction.

"Mmo's take a lot of money to fund" and "ESO has been excessively greedy with monetization for many years" can both be equally true statements. Either way, there is an article saying ESO has made 2 billion in revenue in it's lifetime. While some of the article is dated and last year was rough for ZOS, I still would wager a guess that ESO is financially sound unless they have grossly mismanaged that revenue/funds.

My guess is they’re gonna flash up all those paid benefits you are missing out on as you progress through your “free” tome. (Much like the frequent crown store pop-ups.)

You’re gonna want those extra currencies when you see what they tempt you with in the Gold Coast Bazaar.

It just seems like they are manipulating us into spending more money while simultaneously dialing back the quality and quantity of content.