Playstation 4 and Xbox One owners will have to wait a little bit longer to explore the sprawling world of The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) on their TV screens. Zenimax Online confirmed rumors today in a blog post that the console release of their popular massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) has been delayed for 6 months.
ESO launched on PC and Mac officially on April 4th, 2014 to much fanfare and many downloads, an online version of a typically single player game that grants players access to a massive game world full of quests and epic narratives.
Although Zenimax’s announcement to delay ESO came only a few hours ago, keyboard warriors have already taken to the Internet to complain. Many users’ concerns about the setback of the game’s console release are legitimate, but Zenimax feels that it needs more time to iron out issues with network connectivity. The blog post points out that the console manufacturer’s networks, Xbox Live and the Playstation Network, respectively, are both much different than the PC/Mac network and each other. This has lead to unique issues on both console builds, and the ESO team has determined that it would rather take extra time to find fixes for the issues than release a half-baked product. Considering the entire point of ESO is to explore Tamriel with friends, it’s a smart move, despite the backlash.
Zenimax is doing its best to appease both angry and understanding players alike, though. They’ve teamed up with Microsoft and Sony to offer free character transfers from the PC/Mac version to the console version to anyone who purchases ESO before the end of June 2014. Not only that, but they’re offering players a full download of ESO for Xbox One and PS4 for only only $20 when the console version releases, and slapping on a free month of game time to boot. Although the console delay will be disappointing to many, Zenimax Online is stepping up and showing great care for its customers by offering a clear explanation up front; their offer for the console release is just the icing on the cake.
If you want to read more about ESO, read the detailed Techaeris review right here!
Read Zenimax Online’s full press release here, or below:
Read our update regarding ESO’s availability on next-gen consoles.
We know from the frequent questions we get that many of you are excited about playing ESO on the PS4 and Xbox One, and today we’d like to share an official update on the status of these releases. Read on for the latest information:
We’ve been grateful to our fans for the wonderful response to our recent launch of The Elder Scrolls Online for PC/Mac, but we know many of you are eagerly waiting to play the game on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
We continue to work on the console versions of ESO, and game development has been progressing steadily, but we are still working to solve a series of unique problems specific to those platforms. Integrating our systems with each console manufacturer’s networks—which are both different from the PC/Mac system as well as different from each other—has been a challenging process. It has become clear that our planned June release of the console versions isn’t going to be possible. Though we have made great progress, we have concluded that we’ll need about six months to ensure we deliver the experience our fans expect and deserve.
We know that the news of an ESO console delay is as disappointing to many of you as it is to us. We want to do what we can to make it up to our fans who want to start playing now, so we have worked out the following arrangement with Sony and Microsoft:
Via a special offer, anyone who purchases and plays the PC/Mac version of The Elder Scrolls Online by the end of June will have the opportunity to transfer their character(s) to either console version when they are released. The offer will allow you to begin playing immediately on the PC/Mac, and then add the PS4 or Xbox One version and transfer the character(s) you have created and developed. And, you don’t have to pay full price for the game twice. For $20, eligible PC and Mac players will have the option to add a full, digital version of ESO on either the PS4 or the Xbox One with your character transfer(s), and another 30 days of included game time.
Whether you decide to take advantage of this offer or not, we promise to do everything we can to get the game released on both consoles as quickly as we can. We will keep everyone updated with additional details regarding character transfers, specific offer dates, when you can expect console beta to start, and of course, when ESO on consoles will launch.
Thank you for your patience and loyal support.
Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
