While MMORPGs such as Star Wars: The Old Republic has gone the free-to-play (F2P) route, and with apps such as Candy Crush raking in several hundred thousand dollars a day, it is no surprise that many developers are looking at F2P as the future of games, but Bethesda’s upcoming Elder Scrolls: Online is looking to stick to tradition as they will charge a month subscription fee. In fact to top things off, the developers are include microtransactions within the game where gamers can pay extra if they wish to purchase fun items or request for services such as name changes.
A monthly subscription fee doesn’t sound too bad and Blizzard’s World of Warcraft has been enjoying the spoils of such a model for years, but since the Elder Scrolls: Online will be launched on consoles such as the PS4 and Xbox One, there is an issue which is that gamers on those platforms will not only have to pay a monthly subscription for the game, but they will have to pay for Microsoft/Sony’s online services as well. This is definitely not good news for would-be gamers since nobody likes having to pay double, but the good news is that Bethesda is trying to do something about it.
Speaking to the folks at OXM, Bethesda’s Pete Hines told them that they are “seeing whether or not there’s any room to change [Microsoft’s] minds about that for folks who are only playing The Elder Scrolls Online and don’t want to pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription just to play The Elder Scrolls Online.” Of course this applies to Sony as well, but as it stands it looks like there isn’t any progress yet. What do you guys think? Would you be willing to pay a subscription fee for both the game and Microsoft/Sony’s services?
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