Much in the same way that I started this year by telling my loved ones I would cut down my portion sizes in 2026 to attend to my ageing body, Zenimax Online Studios began the year by saying they would be releasing smaller updates for Elder Scrolls Online to refresh the MMO’s creakier content.
Both Edler Scrolls Online and I shall end 2026 leaner and able to climb stairs without our knees popping.
But, in announcing its move from Expansion-sized chapters released every 12 – 18 months to smaller Season updates released every three months, it wasn’t clear what this meant for new zones. Would the world of Tamriel stay locked at its current size, with additional areas being too large a thing to add in a Season update?
“Many players have expressed concern that we’re not doing zones anymore,” game director Nick Giacomini tells me in a follow-up interview, “That’s not true. We are. We are doing zones, and we’re going to talk more about that very soon.”
While Giacomini won’t be drawn on exactly where may be added to Tamriel next, he said “I think players will be happy when they see what’s coming in the next twelveish months.”
Though, he does say players should expect changes on what to expect from a new zone. “With [zones], like everything, we’re asking ourselves instead of just ‘Here’s a zone, exactly the way that you’ve experienced zones [before],’ we’re taking a look at it at a fundamental level. What can we change here to make this more interesting, exciting and in line with what players want, so it’ll be a different flavour.”
Explaining the miscommunication, executive producer Susan Kath says “We had 45 minutes to deliver a huge amount of information, much of which is difficult to convey when we can’t actually show it yet.” One area players are wanting more information is around Tamriel Tomes, the MMOs new battle pass system. “It would be a heck of a lot easier if I could just be like, ‘Here, I’m in the game. Let me show you exactly what I mean by this’,” continues Kath. They will be adding clarifying details in live streams, AMAs, and explanatory posts in the coming months.
While Giacomini won’t talk about what or how new zones will be added to Elder Scrolls Online, he will say how the team plan to enrich the world of Tamriel. In the same stream when they announced the move to Seasons, Giacomini and Kath explained that Orsinium, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, and the Imperial City will be folded into the base game. Previously these locations and their associated quests were all held back as premium content.
This broadening of the base game, Giacomini argues, will lead to more opportunities for all players. “It gives us more flexibility. When we wanted to make something available for all players in the past that meant, we had to design within these base game zones. And while those zones are big, you’re doing yet another series of quests in Auridon, or what have you. This enables the design team to explore more.”
Now a quest can be made available to all players that takes them from Auridon to the Imperial City with a stop off in Orsinium without the designers needing to worry about what expansions a player has bought. Giacomini says before the team would ask themselves, “If we do, that means only X percent of players are going to be able to participate.”
Again, Giacomini falls short of saying what these news quests will be, but he points to what was said in the announcement stream. “We talked about Western Skyrim being folded in as well. Chronologically, that’s much later than Somerset. But it makes sense, because we’re going to be releasing something within the Skyrim areas, and we want to allow as many players as possible to participate.”
This broader canvas upon which to draw new questlines sounds promising, bringing new life to old areas. We still have to wait and see how well Zenimax Online Studios delivers on its promises for these smaller updates. Giacomini and Kath say that the team’s capacity to deliver wasn’t impacted by last year’s layoffs. The truth of that will be proved in March with the launch of Season Zero.
