14 DAY TRIAL // Developer ZeniMax Online says that it currently has a five-year plan for its upcoming MMO The Elder Scrolls Online, designed to keep gamers interested in the long term and expand the overall game world.
Matt Firor, the leader of the studio, tells VG247 that “At five hours the art needs to be good, it needs to feel good when you sit down. Five days is the levelling needs to be good, five months is the end-game needs to be good and the five years is the one you’re talking about.”
Only MMOs that can capture the attention of players in the long term can be truly successful and they need to create true connections between groups of players and clear goals in the game world.
Firor believes that, after The Elder Scrolls Online launches, alliances and groups will be created, which will then in turn push gamers to log into the game so that they perform actions that will benefit the wider community.
ZeniMax Online says that all the content in the game can also be experienced solo by those who only want to see the story and potential choices.
Firor adds, “So the other side of that is we’re planning regular content updates and pretty substantial ones like every month to six weeks – we’re working on the actual cadence just now – but we’re already working on post-launch content now.”
There are teams at ZeniMax Online that are already working on extra content, with the first package set to launch one month after the MMO is out.
The Elder Scrolls Online will use a subscription model, asking gamers to pay monthly in order to access the title.
A beta stage for the game will take place in fall and full launch is expected in the first few months of 2014 on the PC, the Xbox One from Microsoft, and the PlayStation 4 from Sony.