The developers of Elder Scrolls Online have revealed the first content plans for 2025 in a livestream. The greatest response has come to a rather small but very fine announcement.
What kind of livestream was it? It is a tradition for the officials of The Elder Scrolls Online to host an event in January to give a first glimpse at the content plans for the new year. 2025 is no exception to this tradition.
New this time, however, is that there was no presentation of the next chapter. The reason for this is: ESO will probably never receive a major expansion in the summer again. Instead, they want to establish a seasonal model in the future. However, nothing of this was seen in the new livestream, as you can still expect a classic package of dungeon DLC and a free update in the first quarter of the year.
At the end of 2024, there was a major update for the battlegrounds of ESO:
What has been announced for ESO? The new, traditional paid dungeon DLC “Fallen Banners” as well as the free Update 45 are set to be released on March 10, 2025, for PC and Mac, and on March 25, 2025, for consoles. Included are:
- the two dungeons “Outpost of the Exiled” and “Lep Seclusa” – New here is that the dungeons will probably no longer be purchasable with crowns (“While the update is a free update to the base game for all ESO players, you will need an ESO Plus membership to access and play the dungeon DLC”)
- the new test campaign “Champions of Cyrodiil,” where players will extensively test the planned innovations for the PvP zone Cyrodiil in the future
- visual overhaul of the starting areas Betnikh, Stros M‘Kai, Deshaan, Bal Foyen, and Khenarthis Rest as well as the Tamriel maps
- increased running speed for mounts at launch
- rework of certain champion points for crafting
- improved visibility of the values for Mundus stone blessings
Isn’t something missing? The highlight innovation mentioned in the livestream will unfortunately only come at a later date (but will already land on the PTS with Update 45): Addon support for consoles. Similar to PC, players will be able to select, download, and activate modifications for ESO in the future.
How important addon support can be for games is impressively demonstrated by the Elder Scrolls series over many years. Thanks to fan content, Skyrim from 2011, for example, has been a successful long-term hit for over a decade and has been re-released multiple times.
How does the community evaluate this? The fact that dungeons can no longer be purchased with crowns annoys some players. However, the innovations of Update 45 are likely to be well-received. Many players are looking forward to the official addon support for consoles.
- Ihvalen criticizes the new dungeon policy on Reddit: “I am not interested in paying for ESO Plus or any kind of subscription for an MMORPG, which is why I chose ESO back then. If they put content behind a subscription, then it’s time to move on.”
- oussebon praises the plans for Update 45 on Reddit: “For me, the obvious efforts aimed at new players are the main plus: the changes to how wayshrines are displayed on the Tamriel map, the increase in speed of base mounts, and the refresh of starting zones.”
- EmbarrassedPianist59 emphasizes on Reddit how important addon support is: “I literally switched to PC because of the addons. ESO is the only game I use my PC for. So now I actually didn’t need to buy a PC at all.”
- Coast_watcher celebrates the announcement for console addons (via Reddit): “This is the best news, whether it’s part of the new roadmap or not.”
Since ESO is an MMORPG where players interact with many others on a server, what addons can do and are allowed to do is, of course, heavily restricted compared to Skyrim addons. If you want to know what mods from the community are available, check out our list of the 10 best addons for ESO.
