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Developers working on The Elder Scrolls Online don't really think of the long-running game as an MMO because, at this point, it's more of a "virtual world."
At Gamescom last week, PC Gamer's Harvey Randall sat down with the devs of The Elder Scrolls Online to talk about where the game's headed in its 10th year and how it's changed along the way. For Matt Firor, studio director of ESO developer Zenimax Online Studios, those ten years have been a testament to Zenimax's willingness to reshape the game for the better.
As gamers become more accustomed to having their open worlds littered with map markers, checklists, breadcrumbs leading up to objectives, and a host of other convenient options, a Morrowind-style game has become somewhat unfeasible to make for a large studio, according to ZeniMax Online boss and Elder Scrolls Online director Matt Firor.
Back in my day, we didn't have these fancy-schmancy newfangled quest markers and compass points—we had to download add-ons if we wanted the minimap to tell us where our ten boars were, and then walk up the hill, both ways!
When the Metaverse's sales pitch did the rounds in 2022 and 2023, anyone who has been playing MMOs like The Elder Scrolls Online likely had the same thought: «Hold on, I can already do this in a game that lets me have legs.»
The Elder Scrolls Online doesn't always get the credit it's due for being a genuinely good MMO that's been putting out regular expansions and new storylines for a decade. Even though I mained it for a few years myself, I'm guilty of sometimes overlooking it in the shadow of Skyrim's eternal relevance and flashier MMOs. But the numbers win out, as Zenimax Online Studios director Matt Firor revealed during a talk at the Game Developers Conference this year. Over its lifetime, TESO has made nearly $2 billion and has no plans to stop expanding its world and story.
Earlier this year, The Elder Scrolls Online announced that it had made more than $2 billion in customer spend, and its studio director says that figure got highlighted partly to help shine a light on that game's ongoing success.
The Elder Scrolls Online is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, and as the MMO approaches that milestone, its developers say they understand that a Final Fantasy 14-style technological overhaul could prove important.