[i]Read three letters from ESO’s leadership team where they discuss learnings from a busy year and set the tone and expectations for 2026.[/i]
ZeniMax Online Studios Studio Head Jo Burba, [i]ESO [/i]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.
[b][i]ESO [/i]Game Director Nick Giacomini[/b]
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 [url=https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69039]Class Identity Refresh[/url] 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 [i]ESO[/i]’s future. I’ve said this before, but [i]ESO [/i]is nothing without you, our players. And we truly believe that by building this game with you, we can make the next decade of [i]The Elder Scrolls Online[/i] 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.[b]Executive Producer Susan Kath[/b]
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 [i]ESO [/i]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 [i]ESO.[/i] 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 [i]ESO [/i]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.
