The latest news - Is ESO on Maintenace mode?

amiiegee · July 6

While the playerbase keeps shrinking, today we got the news how the Dev team is effected by layoffs, having their team drastical reduced.

The roadmap will be shiftered and contend release EVEN more slowed down.
We had swimming mount developement (wich is basically a running animation in the water) taking i think 9 months, cross play not before 2027, instead of working on cyrodiil fixing we got vengeance, no new class no big new zone, just recoloured skills and thats it.

Im really worried about the future of the game and are wondering if it´s worth to keep investing money into it, in the long run.

Aside of that the feeling becomes stronger, that eso is on maintenance mode - we thought there was a 30 years plan but how the things evolve at the moment, i cant see that happening and it makes me sad.

Aside of that full respect and my thoughts and best wishes to the parts of the dev team, who have been effected by this.

https://kotaku.com/elder-scrolls-online-team-seemingly-halved-xbox-layoffs-2000712920

Soarora · July 6

I genuinely don’t know how we continue on from this. But what is maintenance mode if not a prolonged death?

Synthwavius · July 6

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

ToddIngram · July 6

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

Arunei · July 6

I hate this so much. This whole situation is a lot of things I'm not allowed to say here, though it would be nice if for one day we were allowed to say without needing to filter it what we really want to about this.

That being said I do wonder how long those affected knew they were going to get thrown to the wolves. If they've known for a while but never spoke on it (for legal reasons most likely but also very much likely personal ones) then it's possible stuff has already been structured around them having fewer people and release stuff won't change much because of it.

However I don't know man. During the last stream Gina and Finn didn't seem really upset or bothered or...anything like what we might expect someone about to lose their job in like a week might be acting like. If feels to me like they probably weren't expecting it/didn't know. If they did they both had amazing poker faces.

LADYKiLLER · July 6

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

This.

Game studios don't need to be giant, they just need to be passionate about their project and have a community that's also passionate about their project. LOTRO is a stunning example of that. ESO can be too.

BardokRedSnow · July 6

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

Only bit of silver lining there is. They wont have time to push things no one actually wants anymore.

Sylosi · July 6

Even if they've cut half the staff that would be nowhere near maintenance mode, go see Rift for a game on actual maintenance mode.

Also go see LOTRO for a game with far fewer players and that still puts out regular content (yes not like it used to and not comparable to big MMORPGs) on a staff of roughly 60 people.

ToddIngram · July 6

PvP been in maintenance mode for a decade already. Looks like it's probably going to be the same for PvE now too.

Malprave · July 6

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

Only bit of silver lining there is. They wont have time to push things no one actually wants anymore.

I agree with this. And I’ll probably get pushback when I say we don’t really need any more class refreshes. I feel like all my characters are in a good place now and Zos can get a lot of mileage from adjusting class masteries. Plus we have skill styles which can bring a lot of visual variety.

I really hate hearing about people losing their jobs, but this isn’t necessarily the end for ESO.

spartaxoxo · July 6

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

That's probably true of PvP in general and all other niche content.

BardokRedSnow · July 6

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

That's probably true of PvP in general and all other niche content.

PvP has a bigger end game population than hardcore trifecta trial teams do, its not niche. Its the dreamcatcher for people who play the game the most and have spent the most on the game, without it youll have much less people who have been here for years actually continuing to play.

BardokRedSnow · July 6

Which is why they should listen to pvpers on what pvp developments should be made and not jaded pve players who arent good at pve or pvp, and now also dont even play vengeance.

amiiegee · July 6

LADYKiLLER wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

This.

Game studios don't need to be giant, they just need to be passionate about their project and have a community that's also passionate about their project. LOTRO is a stunning example of that. ESO can be too.

We are speaking about Microsoft / Bethesda.
They are not paying for servers running for charity and players joy, my friend

ToddIngram · July 6

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

That's probably true of PvP in general and all other niche content.

PvP is not niche content. Good grief.

spartaxoxo · July 6

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

That's probably true of PvP in general and all other niche content.

PvP has a bigger end game population than hardcore trifecta trial teams do, its not niche. Its the dreamcatcher for people who play the game the most and have spent the most on the game, without it youll have much less people who have been here for years actually continuing to play.

PvP struggles to fill 360 slots consistently in a game with millions of accounts. Hardcore trifectas are also niche.

Regular dungeons, questing, and crown store will probably be their focus. I don't think it's ideal and it's not what I want to happen. But realistically their resources are now severely limited. I don't know how they survive without new content focused on the most popular activities.

I like Tales of Tribute and companions and I doubt that they ever get another update either.

I just don't see realistically how they can deliver what Microsoft is demanding with a shoe string team without cutting development of less popular features.

amiiegee · July 6

spartaxoxo wrote: »

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

That's probably true of PvP in general and all other niche content.

PvP has a bigger end game population than hardcore trifecta trial teams do, its not niche. Its the dreamcatcher for people who play the game the most and have spent the most on the game, without it youll have much less people who have been here for years actually continuing to play.

PvP struggles to fill 360 slots consistently in a game with millions of accounts. Hardcore trifectas are also niche.

Regular dungeons, questing, and crown store will probably be their focus.

Million accounts aka people who played one time while game was free to play.

The game has probably roughly 50k active accounts split on all servers

ToddIngram · July 6

spartaxoxo wrote: »

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

That's probably true of PvP in general and all other niche content.

PvP has a bigger end game population than hardcore trifecta trial teams do, its not niche. Its the dreamcatcher for people who play the game the most and have spent the most on the game, without it youll have much less people who have been here for years actually continuing to play.

PvP struggles to fill 360 slots consistently in a game with millions of accounts. Hardcore trifectas are also niche.

Regular dungeons, questing, and crown store will probably be their focus.

We get it. You're not into PvP. This is well established. This is a case of you're not there so you don't see it or understand it's importance. But you've been here for enough of these discussions to know better. Please act like it.

BardokRedSnow · July 6

spartaxoxo wrote: »

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

That's probably true of PvP in general and all other niche content.

PvP has a bigger end game population than hardcore trifecta trial teams do, its not niche. Its the dreamcatcher for people who play the game the most and have spent the most on the game, without it youll have much less people who have been here for years actually continuing to play.

PvP struggles to fill 360 slots consistently in a game with millions of accounts. Hardcore trifectas are also niche.

Regular dungeons, questing, and crown store will probably be their focus.

No it doesnt for one, greyhost is locked with a queue every night in pc na, and zos even had to reinstate blackreach because it got so bad.

So youre dead wrong there first of all. When it does struggle its during work hours unless you're DC...

And for two, it has people routinely rotating out of the queue. That 360 is a snapshot within an instance, not the total daily population. Realistically its much more than that.

Sluggy · July 6

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

Only bit of silver lining there is. They wont have time to push things no one actually wants anymore.

The thing is. Are they going to consider GH the thing 'No One' wants or Vengeance the thing 'No One' wants? Or maybe both ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

spartaxoxo · July 6

ToddIngram wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

That's probably true of PvP in general and all other niche content.

PvP has a bigger end game population than hardcore trifecta trial teams do, its not niche. Its the dreamcatcher for people who play the game the most and have spent the most on the game, without it youll have much less people who have been here for years actually continuing to play.

PvP struggles to fill 360 slots consistently in a game with millions of accounts. Hardcore trifectas are also niche.

Regular dungeons, questing, and crown store will probably be their focus.

We get it. You're not into PvP. This is well established. This is a case of you're not there so you don't see it or understand it's importance. But you've been here for enough of these discussions to know better. Please act like it.

I've been in games that entered maintenance mode before. They generally stopped development on the less popular features.

There are things I enjoy that I doubt will get much support going forward either. Tales of Tribute, companions, trials, big events like the Night Market....

They'll probably have to reuse assets more. And I don't see this game going 30 years. It's not about whether I like it or not but about how they had to redo their entire timeline and devs expressing skepticism publicly that they don't how they can manage with such small teams.

I've been in games with that before. The bread and butter most popular got very small updates and then those games shuttered.

I want to be optimistic but it is hard after hearing these reports.

Eldovar · July 6

I saw the same happen over the year with another game I loved playing (also from a Microsoft studio): Sea Of Thieves.

- Great core game.

- Big expansions the first years after release with tall tales from their own lore, pirates of the carribean, monkey island. Really amazing stuff.

- They had another game in development that got rebooted once, then cancelled by Microsoft and half the team laid off.

- Then they switched to seasons with a battlepass and temporary and more experimental additions to the world with some FOMO storytelling.

- That didn’t work to keep players engaged, so they shifted to minor additions to the game each year, which mainly consisted of remixing old stuff we played for years, and went all in on cosmetics. The game is plagued by server problems, rubberbanding and cheating. Problems the devs reassure they are on top of in their half yearly update videos. It has been going on for 3 years now…

- By now most people stopped playing that game because nothing new happens and when there is something happening it is usually community drama. And when people don’t play a game, they don’t spend either.

I saw the writing on the wall when they announced that no more chapters were coming (pun intended). Companies that switch monetisation models 2 years in a row (content pass, season pass) are in trouble.

Frayton · July 6

LADYKiLLER wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

This.

Game studios don't need to be giant, they just need to be passionate about their project and have a community that's also passionate about their project. LOTRO is a stunning example of that. ESO can be too.

It's not up to employees or players. It's all about money and entirely up to the company that owns ESO. LOTRO has passed through different owners too and its current owner sees a financial reason to keep it going. That doesn't seem to be the case with ESO.

ESO's direction has been obvious for years now since the first major layoffs and staff changes. I can only speculate that the opportunity to prove itself as a worthy investment to its owners has come and gone in that time.

spartaxoxo · July 6

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

That's probably true of PvP in general and all other niche content.

PvP has a bigger end game population than hardcore trifecta trial teams do, its not niche. Its the dreamcatcher for people who play the game the most and have spent the most on the game, without it youll have much less people who have been here for years actually continuing to play.

PvP struggles to fill 360 slots consistently in a game with millions of accounts. Hardcore trifectas are also niche.

Regular dungeons, questing, and crown store will probably be their focus.

No it doesnt for one, greyhost is locked with a queue every night in pc na, and zos even had to reinstate blackreach because it got so bad.

So youre dead wrong there first of all. When it does struggle its during work hours unless you're DC...

And for two, it has people routinely rotating out of the queue. That 360 is a snapshot within an instance, not the total daily population. Realistically its much more than that.

When I say consistent I don't mean nightly. I mean all throughout the day.

Stamicka · July 6

Hard to say. New World was turning a new leaf and then all of the sudden it was killed. I haven’t felt reassured by plans and ambitions for any game since seeing that.

And to the people using this as an excuse to push for PvP stuff, get a grip. It’s not a good idea to try to dictate what should get cut and what shouldn’t. Eventually they’ll come for whatever you like too.

Radiate77 · July 6

Stamicka wrote: »

Hard to say. New World was turning a new leaf and then all of the sudden it was killed. I haven’t felt reassured by plans and ambitions for any game since seeing that.

And to the people using this as an excuse to push for PvP stuff, get a grip. It’s not a good idea to try to dictate what should get cut and what shouldn’t. Eventually they’ll come for whatever you like too.

I was just having a conversation yesterday about how perfect of a game New World had became right before they announced EoS…

Eldovar · July 6

Stamicka wrote: »

Hard to say. New World was turning a new leaf and then all of the sudden it was killed. I haven’t felt reassured by plans and ambitions for any game since seeing that.

And to the people using this as an excuse to push for PvP stuff, get a grip. It’s not a good idea to try to dictate what should get cut and what shouldn’t. Eventually they’ll come for whatever you like too.

Live service games are live service games. I played New World too.

Look at Destiny 2, they killed that off too and is also in maintenance mode. When people are not spending to make up for all the development costs, server costs and extra profit, it’s done for. No matter how popular the brand.

Eventually the same will happen with other games I love playing. No more maps and heroes in Overwatch, no more seasons and expansions for Diablo and so on…

spartaxoxo · July 6

Radiate77 wrote: »

Stamicka wrote: »

Hard to say. New World was turning a new leaf and then all of the sudden it was killed. I haven’t felt reassured by plans and ambitions for any game since seeing that.

And to the people using this as an excuse to push for PvP stuff, get a grip. It’s not a good idea to try to dictate what should get cut and what shouldn’t. Eventually they’ll come for whatever you like too.

I was just having a conversation yesterday about how perfect of a game New World had became right before they announced EoS…

Back when I was unhappy with some updates for ESO, I had begun transitioning to New World. And then they announced EoS. And then I was like well, actually like where ESO is headed again. And now this. I don't know that I'll bother with MMOs anymore. But for now, I'll continue to support ESO m

DenverRalphy · July 6

Stamicka wrote: »

Hard to say. New World was turning a new leaf and then all of the sudden it was killed. I haven’t felt reassured by plans and ambitions for any game since seeing that.

And to the people using this as an excuse to push for PvP stuff, get a grip. It’s not a good idea to try to dictate what should get cut and what shouldn’t. Eventually they’ll come for whatever you like too.

That one hurt. Happened the day after I pulled the trigger on the freshly released DLC too.

Radiate77 · July 6

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Radiate77 wrote: »

Stamicka wrote: »

Hard to say. New World was turning a new leaf and then all of the sudden it was killed. I haven’t felt reassured by plans and ambitions for any game since seeing that.

And to the people using this as an excuse to push for PvP stuff, get a grip. It’s not a good idea to try to dictate what should get cut and what shouldn’t. Eventually they’ll come for whatever you like too.

I was just having a conversation yesterday about how perfect of a game New World had became right before they announced EoS…

Back when I was unhappy with some updates for ESO, I had begun transitioning to New World. And then they announced EoS. And then I was like well, actually like where ESO is headed again. And now this. I don't know that I'll bother with MMOs anymore. But for now, I'll continue to support ESO m

Honestly, at least Western studios.
Truly hope Chrono Odyssey can get it together.

Myrtogen · July 6

ToddIngram wrote: »

Synthwavius wrote: »

Far from it. I played LOTRO for 3 years. It had a much smaller playerbase and a skeleton crew, yet they still managed regular expansion and content releases. ESO is going to need to find the right pace and rethink what they want and can do in this new reality

Well, they could save some $ by no longer supporting vengeance. That would be a good place to start.

why are you pvpers always so averse to it? vengeance is fun!