Bad news, next-gen console owners. The Elder Scrolls Online has been delayed from its planned release in June by- wait for it- six months.
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Yikes. The news comes to us straight from Betheda, who seems apologetic and stresses how challenging it has been to get the PC/Mac system to work with both the Xbox One and PS4's networks. Being that it's only a month from their planned release they had no choice but to pull the game and keep working on it for what seems like the rest of the year. A six month delay means that the game will be coming sometime around this Holiday season but will it make the end of the year in time for the rush?
Despite what must be incredibly disappointing news for fans of The Elder Scrolls series, you have to commend them for this action. Other companies would have just tried their best to fix as much as they can and released it anyway, releasing updates to keep fixing the broken system in the months to come. Battlefield 4, anyone?
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To make up for it, they've announced a special offer. Anyone who plays the PC/Mac version of The Elder Scrolls Online by the end of June will be able to transfer their character to either the PS4 or Xbox One version when those are released. You won't have to play full price for the game, either. For $20, PC and Mac players can get a digital console version and 30 days of included game time. It's a slight fix but at least it's something to tide fans over.
Here's Betheda's full statement on the situation:
"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."
