Do you plan to play The Elder Scrolls Online on PS4? Good news! On Xbox One? Uh-oh.
A post on the
PlayStation Blog revealed that PS4 players will not need a PlayStation Plus subscription to play, as with other PS4 MMOs like DC Universe Online. On the Xbox side, though,
Forbes has confirmed that Xbox One players will still need an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
The difference wasn't completely unexpected. Xbox Live has historically hid more features away under the Gold subscription than PlayStation Network has restricted with Plus, even the popular Netflix app requires Gold. Gold can cost $59.99 a year or more, depending on the subscription plan chosen, but is frequently on sale for less.
Also in the PlayStation Blog post, The Elder Scrolls Online Game Director Matt Firor confirmed that PS4 players would play on different servers than PC and Mac players.
"PS4 users will have their own dedicated ESO megaservers (European and North American). PC and Mac users will not be on the PS4 megaservers. This is good news for PS4 players as they won’t have to worry about contending with higher-level PC players when ESO launches on PS4," Firor wrote.
That seems to indicate, at least by the process of elimination, that Xbox One players will be on their own servers, too, but Firor did not address that question in his post.
Judging by the chatter on various message boards, some gamers are already iffy about The Elder Scrolls Online's $15 monthly fee on top of its $60 retail cost. It will be interesting to see if adding another $60 barrier to entry has an impact on the platform The Elder Scrolls Online console players choose, and if that impacts the game experience. Will the Xbox servers be a ghost town?Probably not, but if they policy isn't changed there is a chance they might be less lively.
Of course, for the many who already subscribe to Plus or Gold anyway, it's a moot point.
Firor also answered a few questions specifically about how The Elder Scrolls Online will play on the PS4 and how the commands will be mapped to the PS4 controller. Check out the full post at:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/01/28/the-elder-scrolls-online-on-ps4-your-questions-answered/
The Elder Scrolls Online releases to the PC and Mac on April 4, 2014 and to the Xbox One and PS4 in June of 2014.
