The Tome is just a Battle Pass?

Imperial_Archmage · April 6

So the new Tome feature appears to just be a standard run of the mill battle pass. Those are all fine and well but they’re typically used in games that don’t have a subscription model. Having this not be automatically unlocked for ESO+ subscribers is kinda of a bad look for the game and comes off as a bit greedy honestly. It’s really a stark contrast with the rest of the recent changes which have been largely focused on earning back player goodwill. I have no problem with spending money on this game in order to support it, and the Divines know I have over the years, but this isn’t the way, at least not in my view.

FlameDark · April 6

But you don't have to pay to get things from the tomes. You can just get the free version, which still has quite a lot of stuff in it. Plus every 12 months of ESO+ you get to unlock the premium version of one tome season if you really want to.

They also are making all zones free for everyone. I can't remember which zones are becoming free first on the list, but eventually every chapter and dlc will be available to everyone. Even new ones. I mean ZOS still has to make money somehow to keep the lights on and the servers running. Personally, having every zone free for me for the price of an optional premium battle pass, that has at best interesting cosmetics... is a pretty good deal...

spartaxoxo · April 6

The sub isn't mandatory and neither are we paying for most future content. So, I think it's fair there's a paid version of the battlepass. A lot of the battle pass items are free and it's all cosmetic or convenience items for the most part.

Syldras · April 7

FlameDark wrote: »

They also are making all zones free for everyone. I can't remember which zones are becoming free first on the list, but eventually every chapter and dlc will be available to everyone. Even new ones.

Where did they state that?

allochthons · April 7

Syldras wrote: »

FlameDark wrote: »

They also are making all zones free for everyone. I can't remember which zones are becoming free first on the list, but eventually every chapter and dlc will be available to everyone. Even new ones.

Where did they state that?

I remember them saying the old DLCs would be added to the base game too. Probably during a stream. I've been pushing for Orsinium, Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood to be added to the base game, so I noticed it particularly.

But I can't tell you which stream, which isn't a lot of use. Sorry about that. But I'm about 95% sure that's what was said, so FlameDark isn't pulling it out of thin air.

DoofusMax · April 7

allochthons wrote: »

I remember them saying the old DLCs would be added to the base game too. Probably during a stream. I've been pushing for Orsinium, Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood to be added to the base game, so I noticed it particularly.

They said that they were making the rest of the Year One stuff base-game. That happened about a month ago, so now all the story stuff from base-game through Morrowind is available to everyone.

Greymoor will become base-game in the Fall (Update 51 probably). I'm unsure on the reason for that, but strongly suspect that either it's related to the content coming next year or to the Antiquities system. The buzz is that Season Three will probably be something to do with Winterhold, but that's actually north of Eastmarch and there would be no need for Western Skyrim (roughly Haafingar and Hjalmarch holds) for that. That leaves unlocking Antiquities for everyone. But ZOS hasn't explained their reasoning and I'm just roughly trying to make puzzle pieces fit together.

Beyond that, all the rest of the DLCs are either subscription or Crown Store purchase. My best guess here is that the said in the January stream that all FUTURE content would be free to everyone and a lot folks kind of missed the "future" in there (or heard what they wanted to hear instead of what was actually said - either explanation fits the observed behavior).

allochthons · April 7

DoofusMax wrote: »

...and a lot folks kind of missed the "future" in there (or heard what they wanted to hear instead of what was actually said - either explanation fits the observed behavior).

It would explain mine, for sure. I was wondering why Summerset wasn't mentioned, with Jewelry and Psijic.

Well, I did hear "all future content," I thought older content becoming base-game was slightly different, but my memory for such things isn't great. Thanks for the clarification.

I'll see if I can find the time to watch the earlier '26 streams, and see what I can find.

lillybit · April 7

DoofusMax wrote: »

That leaves unlocking Antiquities for everyone.

I don't think they'd make the zone free just to give everyone antiquities, they'd just alter the inital quest so everyone could access it. They didn't make West Weald free to give us Scribing.

More likely it's to do with the Dynamic Storms in Skyrim due to be coming in season 2 at the end of the year.

I'm guessing Winterhold will be a continuation of that in the new year.

They've never said everything will go base game as far as I know, but it's commonly believed they will. Especially with them giving away the West Weald version (with all the chapters before that) on PS Plus recently. I guess we'll see if any others get added next year.

Edited to take out image link, they never work on my phone!

spartaxoxo · April 7

DoofusMax wrote: »

Beyond that, all the rest of the DLCs are either subscription or Crown Store purchase. My best guess here is that the said in the January stream that all FUTURE content would be free to everyone and a lot folks kind of missed the "future" in there (or heard what they wanted to hear instead of what was actually said - either explanation fits the observed behavior).

Yup, that's the case.

From the Elder Scrolls Online 2026 Reveal

all new content and features are all going to be available for free for anyone who owns ESO or who plays via Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus. Yeah, this is a really exciting change. So it's going to include, if we do any new zones or any new stories or new systems that we release. Exactly. To be specific, there will still be some paid content, and we're going to talk a little bit about that later. But in general, the things that were rolled out as part of Chapters, those will just be game updates from now on.

And speaking of game updates, this is also probably a good time to point out that as part of all of this, with Update 49 in March, we are going to go ahead and roll the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, and Orsinium into that main game as well. Awesome. Yeah. This is a huge change for ESO, and I really love that we're not just making all the new content available to everybody, but to your point, it's just going to be so much simpler for players to understand what to buy, too. All right.

https://youtu.be/Bg3gcsstoXk?t=544

Yup. They said it's specifically new content that will be free. And that they were saying "all," they were using it as a general term because there will still be stuff to buy. But, the gameplay stuff like zones and systems will be free.

Umbracat449 · April 7

Imperial_Archmage wrote: »

So the new Tome feature appears to just be a standard run of the mill battle pass. Those are all fine and well but they’re typically used in games that don’t have a subscription model. Having this not be automatically unlocked for ESO+ subscribers is kinda of a bad look for the game.

Agree.

I feel it should be

Buy base game
Buy sub OR premium battle pass
If you sub, you get the premium battle pass. (But premium doesn't get you the sub).
(Or..... buy neither, just buy base game)

If you want to buy the extra extra thing, you do so even if you sub.

allochthons · April 7

lillybit wrote: »

DoofusMax wrote: »

That leaves unlocking Antiquities for everyone.

I don't think they'd make the zone free just to give everyone antiquities, they'd just alter the inital quest so everyone could access it. They didn't make West Weald free to give us Scribing.

A graphic in the ESO 2026 reveal specifically says Greymoor will become base game in Season 2, which will probably be in November '26.

In the ESO 2026 Reveal in January, they specifically mention Winterhold. Then, in the ESO 2026 Seasons Direct, they give more details about Skyrim (but never specifically say Winterhold) at 00:32:00 (linked to the timestamp here)

allochthons · April 7

Regarding if the previous Chapters (not including Orsinium, Hew's Bane, the Gold Coast, and Greymoor) will be added to the base game.
I laughed when I saw @spartaxoxo had transcribed the section of the Seasons Direct where the confusion comes from. I just transcribed it as well. Here's where I got confused:

Susan says (link is timestamped):

...with so many versions and DLCs on sale at any given time, it could actually get pretty confusing to try to sort out what you needed to buy to play with your friends. <snip>
“Exactly, to be specific, there will still be some paid content*, and we’re going to talk a little about that later. But, in general, the things that were rolled out as part of Chapters, those will just be game updates, from now on."

She's saying that things LIKE what was in chapters will be free in the future. Not that the chapters themselves will be.

It's easy to take it either way, although I think the interpretation that Summerset, and then all the chapters AFTER Greymoor and up to Solstice are going to still cost money is correct. I guess we'll find out.
Dangit! Well, I have ESO+ on my main account, and I probably won't play my alts very much.
* I assumed the "paid content" mentioned there was the Premium Tome Tiers. Which they did talk about later. So it wasn't clear they meant the old chapters.

Imperial_Archmage · April 7

FlameDark wrote: »

But you don't have to pay to get things from the tomes. You can just get the free version, which still has quite a lot of stuff in it. Plus every 12 months of ESO+ you get to unlock the premium version of one tome season if you really want to.

They also are making all zones free for everyone. I can't remember which zones are becoming free first on the list, but eventually every chapter and dlc will be available to everyone. Even new ones. I mean ZOS still has to make money somehow to keep the lights on and the servers running. Personally, having every zone free for me for the price of an optional premium battle pass, that has at best interesting cosmetics... is a pretty good deal...

All battle passes have a free path, I am talking about the premium one. And let’s not forget we already had the free stuff just for logging in before and that’s gone now. And the 12 month “free” unlock is just a crazy amount of time.

As for making previously premium content free, that’s nice and all but it does absolutely nothing for me as a long time subscriber who bought all of them when they first came out. It’s also not exactly revolutionary for an MMO to make past expansions free or part of the base game after a certain amount of time has passed.

My point is that there is increasingly less and less incentive to keep a running subscription, particularly for long time players who don’t really benefit a lot from the ESO+ perks like the extra XP when we already have all characters maxed and ~2000 champion points. Basically the only thing now is just the extra storage space with the materials bag and the furniture vault (things that really should be baseline if we’re being real). That doesn’t really justify the monthly price tag, imo.