Bethesda wants MS to waive XBL gold fee for Elder Scrolls online.

This will never happen. 


Bethesda Vice President of PR and Marketing Pete Hines stated in an interview with OXM that the two companies were in talks, attempting to work out a solution.

“The answer right now is that’s the way it works, but it’s something that we’re aware of and we keep pushing on, to see if there’s something that can be done. We’ll let you know if there’s movement there.”

What is really holding back the MMORPG genre from blooming on the console market are the stiff subscription fees that must be paid to play them. $15 a month could be a lot to shell out if you are on a tight budget, and it is even difficult to pay when you are already subscribing to an Internet gaming service like Xbox Live.

Nobody wants to pay two subscriptions to play online video games, and some would rather stick to the more popular free-to-play models, which have given online gaming a second round on consoles these days.

Bethesda does not want that to happen, but it would rather see Microsoft drop its fees than be forced to sacrifice its own. Hines describes the company’s decision to go with a subscription based payment plan.

“What’s cool about having a subscription model for us, is that firstly we don’t have any gates on the content – Elder Scrolls is very much a game about going wherever you want to, and if you’re randomly running into artificial [obstacles] where you have to pay, it just doesn’t feel right,”

Hines made no mention of talks with Sony to get them to drop the fees required to play online games on the PlayStation 4.

While I would normally find it unlikely for Microsoft to succumb to strong-arming from a moderately successful video game publisher, the Xbox Team has been on a hot streak of going back on many of its policies as of late. Allowing Bethesda to do this would make a ridiculous precedent, opening the doors for other publishers to make the same arguments.

At the same time, denying them the option will be charging gamers double for online gaming, scaring away many gamers to PC Gaming, and something tells me that Bethesda isn’t the one who will emerge with egg on its face after this one. The Elder Scrolls Online‘s subscription fees are not popular, but neither is being forced to pay for Xbox Live Gold.

I still don't understand who would buy and Xbox One and not get Xbox Live (unless you did not have high speed internet, but then again you wouldn't be playing ESO then either.).

~mrmiller

Totally agree with miller. I also amazes me the people that b1tch about the 40 to 60 bucks a year it cost for xbox live. I mean I think thats pretty dam cheap for what you get even without the crappy free games . I do wish that they would have game rentals on live


I don't agree to the "moderately successful" part of the article I think bethesda is one of the more successful game dev out there

To be fair there have been games that required a subscription that only required that you had a silver account.  If I recall correctly, when I was playing Phantasy Star Online you did not have to have Gold.

With that said, who in the world is going to spend $500 on a machine and hundreds on games and then have a problem with paying $3-$5/month for XBL Gold?  I seriously doubt there will be any significant amount of people that will be buying the XB1 just to play ESO.

Yeah, just more pandering to internet trolls. In this case it seems much more logical for them to make ESO cost the initial amount, and then just use (gasp) microtransactions or DLC for further revenue.

Interestingly, there are actually a lot of F2P MMO's on the PS4 that are NOT locked behind the pay wall of PS+.  But, since this game is not F2P, it is currently locked behind the PS+ pay wall like all other MP games.  Kind of strange in a way.  I can play Planetside 2 completely for FREE (aside from buying a PS4 obviously) but because I have to pay for a copy of ESO, it does not get the same treatment as the other MMO's.

This game will go free to play(like 99% of  pc mmo's) sooner or later for sure....

and both sony and MS will never waive there online cost for  Bethesda to make money off there internet service for free...

the way i think it should work .. 
-for xbox silver account and non psn+  there is a 10 buck sub fee + 5 bucks per month  will go to xbl or psn+
-For Xbox Gold and PSN+ account  it should be  Free or if not only $5 a month 

but again i think so many Console Gamers (probably the only time ps4 and xb1 gamers agree about something )are pissed off  there either going to get ride of this  from the start and make it up with micro-transactions in game  ... or MILK the f#ck out of people  for a few months then when subs drop off it will go free to play  with  pay to win

Oh yeah my issue isn't with xbl fee it's with the mmo $15 a month thing. Why $15 not 5 or 10.

S7 OC wrote:Oh yeah my issue isn't with xbl fee it's with the mmo $15 a month thing. Why $15 not 5 or 10.

Gotta get as much as they can from the start.  I don't imagine it being $15 for too long and like has been said will probably drop to f2p.  I'm hyped for ESO, but if it comes out anywhere near when Destiny and Titanfall come out I'm afraid it'll get left behind by me unless it's just an incredible game.  My plan is to gamefly it and go from there.  If I like it so much that I'm willing to pay $15/month for it then I'll buy the digital download and pay the sub.

ya if it comes out around titanfall it will be a skip from me I predict titanfall to be the #1 game sold on XB1 destiny a close second but I see titanfall as the cod killer and destiny the halo killer. both games ARE gonna be wicked badass and the xb1 superstars

Yeah, 343 has done a great job with Halo but Bungie definitely has the skill and budget to pull off the new competitive shooter for this generation.

I think Bethesda will have the best chance if they split the fees somehow with MS.