The latest news - Is ESO on Maintenace mode?

Major_Soulless · July 6

AzuraFan wrote: »

Major_Soulless wrote: »

What are we defining maintainence mode as in this context?

Usually maintenance mode means no new features. Bug fixes and maybe some really small QoL improvements, but nothing new. No new classes, no new zones, no new story content, no new dungeons/arenas/trials, etc.

I don't see this happening to ESO yet

AzuraFan · July 6

Major_Soulless wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

Major_Soulless wrote: »

What are we defining maintainence mode as in this context?

Usually maintenance mode means no new features. Bug fixes and maybe some really small QoL improvements, but nothing new. No new classes, no new zones, no new story content, no new dungeons/arenas/trials, etc.

I don't see this happening to ESO yet

I hope you're right. Though given the amount of layoffs, the pace of new content releases will certainly be a lot slower, or a lot smaller.

BardokRedSnow · July 6

Eldovar wrote: »

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

As far as one issue voting is concerned, thats what everyone does here. This community is incredibly selfish and the vengeance stuff proves as much with pve fans coming in and taking attention from greyhost when they cant even populate the instance they claimed they wanted.

That sure isnt supporting the longevity of the game.

This isn’t about PvE or PvP, nor Vengeance or Grey Host.

Today we all lost, developers and players. No matter your play-style, we are cooked. Let that sink in.

I see posts everywhere people cancelling ESO+ or not buying season 2 pass or crown crates anymore. So the spiral has started.

That’s a nice feel good kombaya sentiment but the lack of focus on what players want has been more evident in PvP than anywhere else. If you don’t want it to be the end of the mmo these things should be discussed

Luneca · July 6

If anyone doubted the game was declining, you could have just done a simple test long before any of these announcements: check your friends and guild lists. I don't know about you all, but my lists are quite empty. Even my brother hasn't logged in since the start of Night Market.

The changes that they made with the trickle content and terrible balancing are a factor for not logging in. Then, the other changes where you cannot do the content you want to do without sitting in a buggy queue also factor into that.

Add in the client's instability, game downtime, etc. -- is it any wonder the game is declining and losing players?

Time is a limited quantity and people want to spend it enjoying (or at least with the illusion that they are enjoying) what they are doing. How many people really enjoyed the recent changes?

Apparently not enough for the metrics to improve and prevent what we just saw. I know that I am in the camp that didn't and isn't enjoying it.

Ratzkifal · July 6

Myrtogen 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.

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

@Myrtogen Because it sucks. If I start up ESO to play PvP, Vengeance does not deliver the experience I am looking for. 99% of this game's content does not exist in Vengeance. There is no point to releasing new sets or new abilities if they will not show up in Vengeance. The existence of Vengeance splits development efforts in two, because whatever is being developed for Vengeance will not show up in normal PvP unless unnecessary extra effort is put into it, which wouldn't be necessary if there was only one version of PvP. Counter sieging in Vengeance is also pointless, because your enemy can never run out of siege. It's also a massive zerg fest, because zerg surfing is the only playstyle that's still possible in Vengeance.
Vengeance used to be about testing stuff to improve regular Cyrodiil, but it's become very transparent that it was just an effort to replace Cyrodiil with something that's hopefully just as good. In part because so many people also gave stupid feedback like "it's fun", when they should have given feedback on whether it's lagging or not. It's not sustainable long term, as we can see, and the data on its popularity was mainly driven by the increased rewards through Golden Pursuits. Otherwise, if Vengeance was as cool as some people as claiming it is, why not also implement Vengeance rules in PvE? All the arguments for Vengeance could also apply to trials and dungeons, but for some reason people realize that Vengeance PvE is dumb but they don't realize that it's the same case for PvP. Vengeance sucks.

Hope that could shed some light on the matter.

amiiegee · July 6

Luneca wrote: »

If anyone doubted the game was declining, you could have just done a simple test long before any of these announcements: check your friends and guild lists. I don't know about you all, but my lists are quite empty. Even my brother hasn't logged in since the start of Night Market.

The changes that they made with the trickle content and terrible balancing are a factor for not logging in. Then, the other changes where you cannot do the content you want to do without sitting in a buggy queue also factor into that.

Add in the client's instability, game downtime, etc. -- is it any wonder the game is declining and losing players?

Time is a limited quantity and people want to spend it enjoying (or at least with the illusion that they are enjoying) what they are doing. How many people really enjoyed the recent changes?

Apparently not enough for the metrics to improve and prevent what we just saw. I know that I am in the camp that didn't and isn't enjoying it.

There were numerous threads about the player base declining and population shrinking and the people calling out have been bashed and silenced. In the long run it was predicable.

Wuuffyy · July 6

Major_Soulless wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

Major_Soulless wrote: »

What are we defining maintainence mode as in this context?

Usually maintenance mode means no new features. Bug fixes and maybe some really small QoL improvements, but nothing new. No new classes, no new zones, no new story content, no new dungeons/arenas/trials, etc.

I don't see this happening to ESO yet

Many didn’t see this with D2 either.

Despite the PvP community haphazardly angered at the fact their class isn’t reworked along with requesting nerfs 24/7- general community sentiment for the last few patches has been strong and steam charts over the last several months or so have shown an increase over the past year from what I could tell.

It’s unfortunate but corpo-level dictates that something can/should be axed when it’s ’not making enough’ rather than ‘not making anything’. Which is where my worry lies with your concept or mine.

Tensar · July 6

deadgame

It seem we will not see a clear end to ESO story

Frayton · July 6

LADYKiLLER wrote: »

Frayton wrote: »

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.

Yes but employees and players reveal whether or not there's a financial reason to keep a game going. Players by playing, employees by making something worth playing. The idea that either of these variables are inconsequential to the overall equation is a huge problem with current business strategies surrounding the gaming industry.

As for whether or not its proving a worthy investment, I'm honestly really surprised considering there's been a lot of talk about that recently. Last numbers I saw were estimating $150M net profit annually? I don't know if that was ever confirmed tho.

It might seem like it to you that ESO is making money, but is it making enough money to justify its expenses? I think the answer to that is obvious and has been for some time.

CameraBeardThePirate · July 6

Luneca wrote: »

If anyone doubted the game was declining, you could have just done a simple test long before any of these announcements: check your friends and guild lists. I don't know about you all, but my lists are quite empty. Even my brother hasn't logged in since the start of Night Market.

The changes that they made with the trickle content and terrible balancing are a factor for not logging in. Then, the other changes where you cannot do the content you want to do without sitting in a buggy queue also factor into that.

Add in the client's instability, game downtime, etc. -- is it any wonder the game is declining and losing players?

Time is a limited quantity and people want to spend it enjoying (or at least with the illusion that they are enjoying) what they are doing. How many people really enjoyed the recent changes?

Apparently not enough for the metrics to improve and prevent what we just saw. I know that I am in the camp that didn't and isn't enjoying it.

This is only indicative that your guild is no longer playing.

For example, in the BG community I had a guild that as of 3 years ago was fully maxed with almost everyone logging on daily. Now, that guild is a ghost town.

However, now there's a different BG guild that's fully maxed with tons of players online daily.

It's an MMO, specific communities will move on and get replaced by other communities.

Luneca · July 6

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Luneca wrote: »

If anyone doubted the game was declining, you could have just done a simple test long before any of these announcements: check your friends and guild lists. I don't know about you all, but my lists are quite empty. Even my brother hasn't logged in since the start of Night Market.

The changes that they made with the trickle content and terrible balancing are a factor for not logging in. Then, the other changes where you cannot do the content you want to do without sitting in a buggy queue also factor into that.

Add in the client's instability, game downtime, etc. -- is it any wonder the game is declining and losing players?

Time is a limited quantity and people want to spend it enjoying (or at least with the illusion that they are enjoying) what they are doing. How many people really enjoyed the recent changes?

Apparently not enough for the metrics to improve and prevent what we just saw. I know that I am in the camp that didn't and isn't enjoying it.

This is only indicative that your guild is no longer playing.

For example, in the BG community I had a guild that as of 3 years ago was fully maxed with almost everyone logging on daily. Now, that guild is a ghost town.

However, now there's a different BG guild that's fully maxed with tons of players online daily.

It's an MMO, specific communities will move on and get replaced by other communities.

Interesting. Now, tell the class how long it takes to get into a BG match as time goes on .

Numbers alone mean nothing without purpose. A different guild might exist with numbers, but overall the game seems to have less people actually engaging in the MMO aspect of the game. <-- That's a different discussion altogether, but still a factor in the decline.

Now, maybe you are on the game more than I am, but I have failed to see the replacement across different forms of content where players engage with each other.

Longer queues, game is super dead in PvP in off-hours, longer BG queues, etc. and this is on PC NA and PC EU.

Even the zone chat is mostly quiet for a large part of the day.

Even the guilds with over 100 people on.

Yeah, not seeing it.

AScarlato · July 6

To me maintenance mode just means keeping the servers running, maybe turning on and off annual events, etc.

It sounds like they still plan on having further development but need time to assess new timelines. So I don't think we are at maintenance.

CameraBeardThePirate · July 6

Luneca wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Luneca wrote: »

If anyone doubted the game was declining, you could have just done a simple test long before any of these announcements: check your friends and guild lists. I don't know about you all, but my lists are quite empty. Even my brother hasn't logged in since the start of Night Market.

The changes that they made with the trickle content and terrible balancing are a factor for not logging in. Then, the other changes where you cannot do the content you want to do without sitting in a buggy queue also factor into that.

Add in the client's instability, game downtime, etc. -- is it any wonder the game is declining and losing players?

Time is a limited quantity and people want to spend it enjoying (or at least with the illusion that they are enjoying) what they are doing. How many people really enjoyed the recent changes?

Apparently not enough for the metrics to improve and prevent what we just saw. I know that I am in the camp that didn't and isn't enjoying it.

This is only indicative that your guild is no longer playing.

For example, in the BG community I had a guild that as of 3 years ago was fully maxed with almost everyone logging on daily. Now, that guild is a ghost town.

However, now there's a different BG guild that's fully maxed with tons of players online daily.

It's an MMO, specific communities will move on and get replaced by other communities.

Interesting. Now, tell the class how long it takes to get into a BG match as time goes on .

The same as it's always taken, +/- a few minutes depending on the time of day? I mean you can tune into PvP streamers right now in the middle of the day getting near instant pops for BGs.

Group BGs sure, that's another story, but that's less indicative of an overall population issue or moreso indicative of a shift from group focus -> solo focus.

Population wise, the game is doing fine. It's certainly not growing, and will likely dip with this news and the doomers giving up on it, but let's not act like the population was Concord level or anything.

Destai · July 6

Before I say anything further, I want to reiterate my heartfelt condolences to the people at ZOS. All of you have made a wonderful world that has been my home since 2014.

Now, onto the current situation. I have felt for some time now that this game was winding down. Maybe things weren’t bad during High Isle but that was the first year I felt the “that’s it?” sentiment.

It got progressively worse ever since and after Solstice, I knew this game would never return to its zenith. That’s not what I wanted, obviously, but it’s a picture that’s been getting clearer as time goes on.

With Blackbird’s trajectory, it felt like many bright minds were shifting elsewhere, only to leave the studio entirely.

Since the announcement of the Seasons model and QoL, it became clear to me they’re just trying to make the best of their situation. Cynically, it felt like too little, too late. And now, that feeling is a bit more pronounced, and validated.

We will ultimately never know why Microsoft made the painful decision to lay off so much amazing talent. But I do wonder how much of this would’ve played out differently under better leadership sooner. Maybe they would’ve never been acquired, who knows.

I want this game to survive, but I have accepted that thriving is not a likely future. I’m sadly at the point where I log in to visit memories and dress up my toons. Not much left at this point.

Sephyr · July 6

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Luneca wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Luneca wrote: »

If anyone doubted the game was declining, you could have just done a simple test long before any of these announcements: check your friends and guild lists. I don't know about you all, but my lists are quite empty. Even my brother hasn't logged in since the start of Night Market.

The changes that they made with the trickle content and terrible balancing are a factor for not logging in. Then, the other changes where you cannot do the content you want to do without sitting in a buggy queue also factor into that.

Add in the client's instability, game downtime, etc. -- is it any wonder the game is declining and losing players?

Time is a limited quantity and people want to spend it enjoying (or at least with the illusion that they are enjoying) what they are doing. How many people really enjoyed the recent changes?

Apparently not enough for the metrics to improve and prevent what we just saw. I know that I am in the camp that didn't and isn't enjoying it.

This is only indicative that your guild is no longer playing.

For example, in the BG community I had a guild that as of 3 years ago was fully maxed with almost everyone logging on daily. Now, that guild is a ghost town.

However, now there's a different BG guild that's fully maxed with tons of players online daily.

It's an MMO, specific communities will move on and get replaced by other communities.

Interesting. Now, tell the class how long it takes to get into a BG match as time goes on .

The same as it's always taken, +/- a few minutes depending on the time of day? I mean you can tune into PvP streamers right now in the middle of the day getting near instant pops for BGs.

Group BGs sure, that's another story, but that's less indicative of an overall population issue or moreso indicative of a shift from group focus -> solo focus.

Population wise, the game is doing fine. It's certainly not growing, and will likely dip with this news and the doomers giving up on it, but let's not act like the population was Concord level or anything.

Honestly, this. Plus, I'm honestly waiting to see their game plan and more concrete information first before making any kind of judgement on the matter. Having been in a game that went into maintenance mode the year after it re-released without any word or closure—I'm happy that we're getting SOMETHING.

amiiegee · July 6

Source is X (twitter)

A list of people we know who have been laid off at ZOS and Bethesda:

ZOS
Community Manager Gina Bruno
Lead Dungeon Director Mike Finnigan
Writer Designer Andrew Siañez-De La O
Writer Designer Julianna Comstock
Senior Writer Designer Jeff Grubb
Project Art Director Marc Hudgins
Senior Concept Artist Christina Cornett
Senior Animator Ami DeLullo
Animator Evan Van Biert
Senior Tools Engineer Robert Bailey
QA Tester Page Branson
Producer Ethan Koltz
Environmental Artist Brandon Rush
Associate Sound Designer Andrew Jordan
Senior Sound Designer Daniel Costello
Associate Sound Designer Sebastian Theodoro
QA Tester Trevor Bream
DevOps Engineer William Novak
Realtime FX Artist Jacob Wynn
Senior VFX Artist Anelise Mize
Lead Designer Ed Stark
Senior Encounter Designer Morgan Goin
Encounter Designer Erinn Fecteau
Senior Encounter Designer James Audet
Tools Product Owner Sydney Thibeault
Senior Software Engineer Dustin Thurston
Live Game Lead Gregory Roth
Content Manager Milo Webb
QA Manager Erik Marby
Narrative Director Bill Slavicsek
Lead Narrative Designer Richard Baker
Writer Designer Alexandria Baker
Writer Designer Ameya Vinayaraj

Bethesda
Community Manager Jessica Clark
Game Designer Simon Préfontaine
GRC Engineer Wayne Saunders
Associate Quest Designer Griffin DeClaire
Quest Designer Stephanie Zachariadis
Systems Designer Jean Paul Salman
Gameplay Engineer Anne Barrett
Monetization Designer Kevin Benavides
Lead Systems Designer Jacob Naasz
Senior Build and Release Programmer Anthony Ford
Lead Quest Designer Joshua Moretto
Senior QA Tester Steven Hoyle

Seraphayel · July 6

This article gives a bit more information: https://twistedvoxel.com/zenimax-to-focus-on-elder-scrolls-fallout-doom-quake-wolfenstein-id-software-layoffs/

As the focus is clearly on their biggest brands and ESO is one of them, I think they will just shift workforce around and ESO will still be supported, just not with ZOS former employees, but with ones from other studios that get disbanded or shifted around.

AzuraFan · July 6

Destai wrote: »

But I do wonder how much of this would’ve played out differently under better leadership sooner.

I wonder that too, except the leadership I wonder about is ESO's, not any higher than that. The game was in a rut for a number of years (zones with 6 delves, 6 WBs, 2 PDs, 4 dungeons/year, etc.), and longstanding bugs and QoL requests weren't being addressed. ESO seemed to be coasting while a lot of attention was given to the other project. I think it was taken for granted that the money would just keep rolling in, but MMOs are a competitive area. When things start to feel stale, people play the game less. The constant yo-yo'ing regarding builds/nerfing didn't help.

The new leadership team seemed to have more energy, the devs on the streams seemed more engaged, and they were trying new things with Night Market, the stuff coming in season one, and the stuff that was planned (but maybe won't happen now) for later in the year. The new challenge difficulty seemed to bring some people back - I've seen more "I'm a returning player" posts recently than I've ever seen. Perhaps if the leadership had changed earlier, we wouldn't be at this point. That's one reason the news is so heartbreaking - things were looking up!

Major_Soulless · July 6

Seraphayel wrote: »

This article gives a bit more information: https://twistedvoxel.com/zenimax-to-focus-on-elder-scrolls-fallout-doom-quake-wolfenstein-id-software-layoffs/

As the focus is clearly on their biggest brands and ESO is one of them, I think they will just shift workforce around and ESO will still be supported, just not with ZOS former employees, but with ones from other studios that get disbanded or shifted around.

I get the feeling they want to focus on the single player game of elder scrolls

amiiegee · July 6

Probably not the right audience here but while they keep axing eso - the leading managers behind this descision shouldn’t forget what a big year for gaming 2026 is with upcoming titles.

Instead of trying to HOLD the active playerbase they are scaring it and making it even more likely to leave due maintenance mode and less updates

Seraphayel · July 6

Major_Soulless wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

This article gives a bit more information: https://twistedvoxel.com/zenimax-to-focus-on-elder-scrolls-fallout-doom-quake-wolfenstein-id-software-layoffs/

As the focus is clearly on their biggest brands and ESO is one of them, I think they will just shift workforce around and ESO will still be supported, just not with ZOS former employees, but with ones from other studios that get disbanded or shifted around.

I get the feeling they want to focus on the single player game of elder scrolls

Obviously, but ESO is part of that franchise and the Crown Store is still generation lots of cash.

What I think is Microsoft fired all the senior or expensive employees or redundancies, which is still a shame, but with a clearer focus I‘m not too concerned about ESO in the moment.

Faerugue · July 6

amiiegee wrote: »

Source is X (twitter)

A list of people we know who have been laid off at ZOS and Bethesda:

ZOS
Community Manager Gina Bruno
Lead Dungeon Director Mike Finnigan
Writer Designer Andrew Siañez-De La O
Writer Designer Julianna Comstock
Senior Writer Designer Jeff Grubb
Project Art Director Marc Hudgins
Senior Concept Artist Christina Cornett
Senior Animator Ami DeLullo
Animator Evan Van Biert
Senior Tools Engineer Robert Bailey
QA Tester Page Branson
Producer Ethan Koltz
Environmental Artist Brandon Rush
Associate Sound Designer Andrew Jordan
Senior Sound Designer Daniel Costello
Associate Sound Designer Sebastian Theodoro
QA Tester Trevor Bream
DevOps Engineer William Novak
Realtime FX Artist Jacob Wynn
Senior VFX Artist Anelise Mize
Lead Designer Ed Stark
Senior Encounter Designer Morgan Goin
Encounter Designer Erinn Fecteau
Senior Encounter Designer James Audet
Tools Product Owner Sydney Thibeault
Senior Software Engineer Dustin Thurston
Live Game Lead Gregory Roth
Content Manager Milo Webb
QA Manager Erik Marby
Narrative Director Bill Slavicsek
Lead Narrative Designer Richard Baker
Writer Designer Alexandria Baker
Writer Designer Ameya Vinayaraj

Bethesda
Community Manager Jessica Clark
Game Designer Simon Préfontaine
GRC Engineer Wayne Saunders
Associate Quest Designer Griffin DeClaire
Quest Designer Stephanie Zachariadis
Systems Designer Jean Paul Salman
Gameplay Engineer Anne Barrett
Monetization Designer Kevin Benavides
Lead Systems Designer Jacob Naasz
Senior Build and Release Programmer Anthony Ford
Lead Quest Designer Joshua Moretto
Senior QA Tester Steven Hoyle

Source is these forums here - a post that is quoted on Twitter ...

Wuuffyy · July 6

Seraphayel wrote: »

Major_Soulless wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

This article gives a bit more information: https://twistedvoxel.com/zenimax-to-focus-on-elder-scrolls-fallout-doom-quake-wolfenstein-id-software-layoffs/

As the focus is clearly on their biggest brands and ESO is one of them, I think they will just shift workforce around and ESO will still be supported, just not with ZOS former employees, but with ones from other studios that get disbanded or shifted around.

I get the feeling they want to focus on the single player game of elder scrolls

Obviously, but ESO is part of that franchise and the Crown Store is still generation lots of cash.

What I think is Microsoft fired all the senior or expensive employees or redundancies, which is still a shame, but with a clearer focus I‘m not too concerned about ESO in the moment.

“Actions speak louder than words”.

They say they are going to focus on x, y, z BUT then that leads to a reduction of UP TO 50% of the workforce…

(speaking in terms of ZeniMax subsidiary, ZOS only… i.e. ‘ESO’ for us)…

(of which includes several accomplished employees as we have verified, such as Mike F. And Gina B. as referenced prior by other individuals).

Seraphayel · July 6

Wuuffyy wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

Major_Soulless wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

This article gives a bit more information: https://twistedvoxel.com/zenimax-to-focus-on-elder-scrolls-fallout-doom-quake-wolfenstein-id-software-layoffs/

As the focus is clearly on their biggest brands and ESO is one of them, I think they will just shift workforce around and ESO will still be supported, just not with ZOS former employees, but with ones from other studios that get disbanded or shifted around.

I get the feeling they want to focus on the single player game of elder scrolls

Obviously, but ESO is part of that franchise and the Crown Store is still generation lots of cash.

What I think is Microsoft fired all the senior or expensive employees or redundancies, which is still a shame, but with a clearer focus I‘m not too concerned about ESO in the moment.

“Actions speak louder than words”.

They say they are going to focus on x, y, z BUT then that leads to a reduction of UP TO 50% of the workforce…

(speaking in terms of ZeniMax subsidiary, ZOS only… i.e. ‘ESO’ for us)…

(of which includes several accomplished employees as we have verified, such as Mike F. And Gina B. as referenced prior by other individuals).

Who knows what the contracts were, maybe ZOS employees had better terms so it is easier to lay them off and fill some roles with other Microsoft employees.

Also a lot of roles are / were redundant and will be if other studios get closed. I don’t want to excuse what has happened today, but we don’t have enough information to say the game is heading into maintenance mode or ESOs future is doomed.

AzuraFan · July 6

Seraphayel wrote: »

What I think is Microsoft fired all the senior or expensive employees or redundancies, which is still a shame, but with a clearer focus I‘m not too concerned about ESO in the moment.

The thing is, usually the most senior or expensive employees are also the most experienced. So the game has lost a ton of dev experience, and that will impact things going forward.

I don't know what the future holds for ESO, whether it'll be good or bad, but I am concerned because something really bad happened today, and we know the roadmap will now change. Anyone who isn't concerned today has their head firmly planted in the sand.

Gagoimaliu · July 6

It's a very bad situation to be in right now yes, but MMOs have survived worse. And let's be honest, it's not like the past year or two weren't without controversy (Writhing Wall comes to mind, probably more I can't think of)

Yes, it's horrible for the people fired, and bad for the players, but we'll see. SWTOR is still going on with content updates (though small they may be), LOTRO is a fantastic game that is regularly releasing new content and that game switched 3 studios at one point.

The game will be affected for a long time, and content will definitely be changed or cancelled, but the game will still be here. I get the dooming, it's ***, but as long as ESO is around, making money, there's always the potential to bounce back.

rothan117 · July 6

My gut feel is that the content release will become a drip feed, that there will never be another new zone or major story release, just minor story content like this upcoming Thieves Guild and Sheogorath stuff.

A lot of the stuff on the roadmap will either get spread out over a much longer time or cancelled entirely.

I would say the remaining class updates are in significant danger.

Given the things they said about how deep and technical the problems with Grey Host are and how the calculations burden the system, I would seriously doubt they now have the personnel resources to ever do the sort of overhaul required to fix Grey Host's problems.

For those mentioning SWTOR and LOTRO as examples of games with smaller populations continuing to receive content, keep in mind LOTRO was sold to Daybreak, which specializes in keeping old MMO type games going on minimal staff and thin margins. EA moved SWTOR to Broadsword, which also specializes in keeping old games going. Microsoft is very unlikely to accept the sort of low margins that Daybreak and Broadsword operate on.

And the rate of content release on SWTOR is horrible, a few hours worth of new game content a year. LOTRO does better, but it is still a shadow of its former self and content leans heavily into repetitive cookie cutter grind tasks to keep players busy each expansion and the quality of the expansion is a shadow of the glory days.

I still play both of those but not like I used to.

So far, it also appears that WoW, also owned by MS through Blizzard, did not get hit hard. Interesting.

Wuuffyy · July 6

rothan117 wrote: »

So far, it also appears that WoW, also owned by MS through Blizzard, did not get hit hard. Interesting.

I am curious as to the source of this part. I don’t doubt/disbelieve however I am writing this to ask you if you could add this, if possible/allowed.

rothan117 · July 7

Wuuffyy wrote: »

rothan117 wrote: »

So far, it also appears that WoW, also owned by MS through Blizzard, did not get hit hard. Interesting.

I am curious as to the source of this part. I don’t doubt/disbelieve however I am writing this to ask you if you could add this, if possible/allowed.

No announcements of layoffs at WoW while those impacted by layoffs and spinoffs have been announced. Whether they will be hit by the later round is unknown.

Rungar · July 7

rothan117 wrote: »

Wuuffyy wrote: »

rothan117 wrote: »

So far, it also appears that WoW, also owned by MS through Blizzard, did not get hit hard. Interesting.

I am curious as to the source of this part. I don’t doubt/disbelieve however I am writing this to ask you if you could add this, if possible/allowed.

No announcements of layoffs at WoW while those impacted by layoffs and spinoffs have been announced. Whether they will be hit by the later round is unknown.

i would actually expect a major investment in wow as its still the largest mmo. eso is small potatoes compared to it so it makes sense they would want to focus solely on that title in the mmo space.