Looks like we’ll be a little more elder ourselves before we can play The Elder Scrolls Online on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Today, publisher Bethesda Softworks announced in a press release sent to GamesBeat that it’s delaying the console editions of its massively multiplayer role-playing game for about six months. The PC and Mac releases came out early last April and were supposed to be out in June for the consoles.
“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,” Bethesda Softworks stated in the press release. “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.”
As a consolation to fans waiting for the console versions, anyone who buys and plays the game on PC/Mac until the end of June will receive a free character transfer to either the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One version when they eventually come out. Also, players who paid pull price for the PC and Mac versions will only have to spend another $20 to add an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 account and a free month of game time along with their character transfer.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, one of ESO’s competitors, just released its PlayStation 4 version. While ESO will keep platforms separate, those with the PlayStation 4’s A Realm Reborn can play with PC and PlayStation 3 characters.
The Elder Scrolls Online is an ambitious online extension of a series that previously stuck with single-player games like Skyrim and Oblivion. The subscription-based MMO could potentially bring a lot of revenue to Bethesda, but it needs enough paying players to cover the expensive upkeep that comes with these kinds of games. Launching on consoles could help increase the player base significantly.