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User: Elder's scrolls online devs communicate.

Elder's scrolls online devs communicate. Translate this PR language communicate to human, straight language and tell me in a blunt way what conclusions regarding the ESO's future can we foreseen based on it:

Read three letters from ESO’s leadership team where they discuss learnings from a busy year and set the tone and expectations for 2026.

ZeniMax Online Studios Studio Head Jo Burba, ESO Game Director Nick Giacomini, and Executive Producer Susan Kath share their thoughts on a challenging 2025 and their early plans for the year to come.

ESO Game Director Nick Giacomini

As another year in Tamriel comes to a close, I want to start with a moment of honest reflection.

This has been a challenging year. While we had high ambitions, we stumbled. Writhing Wall was not the experience that we wanted to deliver or that players deserved. Subclassing introduced and highlighted issues with class identity. Previously, we referred to this year as a “transition” year, yet I feel that there was not enough transition in meaningful ways.

Players have been asking us to be more transparent and communicate better; to provide a more rewarding experience; to be more exciting; to address long-standing issues and pain points; to improve combat, class identity, and PvP; and generally make more investment in the core game experience instead of just chasing the next big thing. We hear you. We agree.

We’ve talked about change in the past, but there’s been a disconnect with the words we’ve communicated and what we’ve released subsequently after those communications. We’re going to change that moving forward. We hope that you’ve seen the start of better communication from us, such as the recent Class Identity Refresh deep dive. This is not a temporary goal. We’re going to focus more on the core game, transparency, and listening to and incorporating your feedback. It’s the foundation of our work and the key to ESO’s future.

I’ve said this before, but ESO is nothing without you, our players. And we truly believe that by building this game with you, we can make the next decade of The Elder Scrolls Online the best one yet.

We know actions speak louder than words, and we will be addressing a lot of this in more concrete detail on January 7 during our 2026 Reveal livestream, so stay tuned.

Executive Producer Susan Kath

We’ve talked a lot about 2025 as a transition year, and a great deal of that was going on behind-the-scenes over the last 12 months. A game as massive as ESO doesn’t turn on a dime. Over the last year, we've had leadership changes throughout the studio, retooled the team and our development processes, and built out the new Seasons structure and content while planning out the next five plus years of ESO.

After eight years of yearly Chapter releases, that means rethinking nearly everything from the ground up. We’re no strangers to hard work, and it has been roll-the-sleeves-up-and-get-our-hands-dirty levels of work, but the team is excited—we’re all excited—to move into this next era.

So, what are we focusing on next? That’s what the 2026 Reveal livestream on January 7 is all about, and we can’t wait to put it in front of you and hear your thoughts.

We have a LOT to cover in this stream, and we’ll also follow it up with additional blog posts, streams, and AMAs going deeper on all the Big Details. We’ll also share more details in the following months on the topics we’re only able to cover briefly in the show, such as the introduction of optional Overland Difficulty modes that offer greater challenges and rewards.

The livestream’s main topics will be:

Seasons–the new approach to ESO releases that replaces Content Pass Some of the new content we’ll be introducing over the first few Seasons QoL improvements, class and combat changes, PvP additions, and in-game events changes And very importantly, how we are going to approach all this so that we can surprise and delight you with new additions while working to better incorporate your thoughts and feedback as we tackle reworks and improvements to our core features. We'll go into much greater detail in the 2026 Reveal livestream, so I'll just wrap up my part of this letter by asking you to join us on January 7, plus keep bringing us your questions, thoughts, and ideas. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Studio Head Jo Burba

As we hope you have already started to see, communication with you is one of the first things about ESO that is changing, and those changes don't stop after January 7. In 2026, the communication from us will be focused on the overall plan. It will get into more practical information about what we will be testing and when, what kinds of feedback we are looking for to help us iterate, and what is changing based on that feedback.

If you are reading this letter, chances are the things that truly excite you are learning the details of what we're doing and then testing them out so that you can help us deliver fun things to the community. We may try some crazy things, and we may not always get it 100% right, but what we always want to get right is that you feel heard and that our actions prove it.

We appreciate your support every year, but especially so this year. With all the changes in 2025 and the bumps that resulted, we found that focusing on the #ESOFam motivated us and reminded us why we are all here: to make and play great games with our friends.

Have a great end of year, and we will see you January 7!

Assistant: First, quick English fixes straight, no sugar-coating:

First, quick English fixes (straight, no sugar-coating):

• “Elder's scrolls online devs communicate.” → “ESO devs’ communication.”
• “Translate this PR language communicate to human” → “Translate this PR language into plain English.”
• “what conclusions … can we foreseen” → “what conclusions … can we foresee.”

Now the human, blunt translation and what it really means for ESO’s future.

Plain-English translation (no PR fog)

1. “2025 was a transition year”

Translation: 2025 was a mess. We broke things, shipped weak content, and failed to fix old problems while telling you we were “transitioning.”

2. “Writhing Wall failed, subclassing hurt class identity”

Translation: We pushed half-baked systems into the live game without fully understanding the consequences. Balance and class fantasy suffered, and we know it.

3. “We hear you. We agree.”

Translation: Player complaints were accurate. We can’t dismiss them anymore because engagement, trust, or metrics dropped enough to hurt.

4. “We’ll focus on core game, not just the next big thing”

Translation: The old model (yearly flashy Chapters to sell hype) is no longer working reliably. We need to stabilise the base game to stop player erosion.

5. “Leadership changes, retooled teams, new processes”

Translation: Internal restructuring happened. Some people left or were moved. Pipelines were inefficient or outdated. This slowed content and caused inconsistency.

6. “Seasons replace yearly Chapters”

Translation: The annual mega-expansion model is dead. It’s too risky, too slow, and too expensive for current returns.

7. “Optional Overland Difficulty”

Translation: We finally admit ESO’s overworld has been braindead easy for years, and we’re trying to fix that without alienating casuals.

8. “We’ll test more, communicate more, iterate with feedback”

Translation: We’ll use players as early testers more openly because internal QA + closed testing didn’t catch big failures.

9. “Next decade of ESO”

Translation: ESO is not being sunset. But it is being re-engineered to survive long-term with lower risk and steadier output.

What you can realistically foresee about ESO’s future

✅ What is likely to happen

1. Smaller but more frequent content drops Less cinematic hype, more incremental systems and fixes.
2. More conservative design Fewer wild experiments like subclassing without long public testing first.
3. Heavy focus on “core systems” - Combat tuning - Class identity cleanup - PvP maintenance (not revolution) - QoL debt repayment
4. ESO becomes more “live-service stable” Less ambition, fewer disasters, slower evolution.
5. Overland difficulty splits Casual players keep easy mode. Veterans finally get friction and rewards.

⚠️ What this also quietly implies (important)

1. ESO is past its growth phase This is retention mode, not expansion mode.
2. Risk appetite is lower Don’t expect radical redesigns or bold new pillars. Expect safety.
3. “Listening to players” = filtering loud, actionable feedback They will not follow forum consensus. They’ll cherry-pick what aligns with metrics.
4. PvP will be patched, not reborn Enough to keep it alive. Not enough to make it central again.
5. If Seasons fail, ESO enters maintenance decline This is a pivot attempt. Not a guaranteed win.

Bottom line (brutally honest)

• ESO is not dying, but it is course-correcting under pressure.
• This is what studios do when a long-running MMO stops justifying big annual bets.
• If they execute well: ESO stabilises and survives many more years.
• If they don’t: ESO slowly fossilises into a comfort MMO with diminishing ambition.

If you want, next we can:

• dissect why subclassing was doomed from a systems perspective, or
• predict which player groups will benefit and which will quietly leave, or
• analyse whether “Seasons” usually succeed or fail in MMOs based on precedent.