Was The Elder Scrolls Online the best MMORPG in 2015?
TESO 2015 shows that there is no fairness in the MMO world. Thanks to the tremendous Skyrim bonus when transitioning to consoles, 2015 was undoubtedly a strong financial year for TESO. They profited enormously from “old” laurels. The TESO year 2014 on PC does not justify such success. It was the “famous” universe that helped sell the latest game in the Elder Scrolls series. All the problems and issues of PC TESO did not concern console players.
The console launch was, therefore, a complete success. However, the port to PS4/Xbox One consumed the entire first half of the year.
In the second half, the Imperial City brought a mediocre and Orsinium a strong DLC. However, many major plans that were on the table progressed not at all. And the steps taken were only patchwork.
When judging by “Where did TESO stand economically in 2014, where does it stand today?” TESO can be made MMO of the year, the game that has improved the most.
If judging purely by “Where does TESO stand in gameplay in 2014, where does it stand today?” there would probably be other contenders, though not many. Guild Wars 2 also paid dearly for its expansion “Heart of Thorns” – other than the expansion, not much happened in 2015 for GW2. Final Fantasy XIV seems to remain a niche phenomenon, and World of Warcraft faced a content drought early in 2015. In that sense, The Elder Scrolls Online is a good choice.
Either way, Zenimax deserves respect. Much went wrong in the development phase, but in the live phase, they have now set the course correctly and initiated many good plans. Now they need time to implement these. We can only hope that The Elder Scrolls Online will progress faster in its 3rd year of life than it did in 2015.
But the major side projects, the transition of the payment model, the introduction of the cash shop, the port to consoles – all of this is done. Now they can return to the game itself and its vision. Thus, 2015 can be seen as a year of necessary change, a pivotal year for the game.
If you want to hear the official version from Zenimax about how 2015 went – you can find it in this article: The Elder Scrolls Online looks back on 2015 with satisfaction, proud to be MMO of the Year
In our “State of Play” reports, we take a quarterly look at the current status of the major Western MMORPGs. The last one was at the end of August:
