Members of the ESO development team go into detail regarding Update 49’s Player Experience additions.
There are a ton of player experience improvements coming in the Update 49 base-game patch. This work is courtesy of a team within the studio that focuses on player pain points, community requests, and other fixes to your time in Tamriel. We’ve asked some of them to share their process—and what additions they’re most excited about as players themselves!
Choosing Changes
“We have a long list of improvements we want to make to the game,” says Systems Designer Lyndsay Beaver. “Many items on the list have come directly from players in the form of forum posts, conversations with players at conventions, and events like player summits we’ve had. Other items are improvements that we as devs (and players ourselves) want to see in the game, or systems we’d like to revisit. But the question of prioritizing all of that is the tricky part.”
“There’s a lot of technicalities that we have to consider,” adds Content Designer Jordan Sarnovsky. “From developer bandwidth to tech demands or what release an improvement would be the most applicable to at any given time.”
Update 49’s first wave of improvements
For the additions and improvements arriving in Update 49, the team set some specific goals that helped guide their choices.
“Overall, we were primarily focused on reducing friction, eliminating some of the monetary ‘feels bads,’ and updating some systems that were starting to feel dated, while ultimately trying to provide something for every kind of player,” shares Beaver. “The amount of improvements and systems revisited was very broad, and we couldn’t get to everything we wanted to this round. The good news is any of the ideas that didn’t make 49 remain on our list for revisit in future packages.”
Community Help
Of course, the team doesn’t make their choices in a vacuum. Feedback from ESO’s players is vital to ensuring the changes are targeted where they are most needed.
“The player base has already arranged collection threads of suggested improvements or callouts of some of their greatest pain points,” says Sarnovsky. “And we reference them frequently."
“Public Test Server feedback and forum posts are also sources that we read and strive to act on,” explains Beaver. “Even now, we’re working on updates that have come from forum posts that we think are great ideas. We’ve also had guild summits where items bubbled up that ended up on our list.”
Community communication is key
Community involvement doesn’t stop with the initial suggestions and ideas, either.
“Once we had our final list and the changes we wanted to make, we held focus groups with community members, taking their feedback to further hone some of the numbers,” says Beaver. “We even noted possible further changes for features that were going in for Update 49 but could be improved again in later updates.”
Experience Excitement
With all the great Player Experience changes coming in Update 49, it’s hard for anybody on the team to pick a favorite.
“Housing furnishing limits are getting bumped up for quite a few home sizes,” says Beaver. “Dedicated housing players are fully aware of this, but more casual players may not realize what a dramatic change this can be to their placement and decorating freedom. Even just from an inventory standpoint, if an item isn’t placed it has to be stored. So, not only can you more generously decorate, but you’ll free up some bag, bank, or storage space for all new furnishings.”
“I think the mount training additions are the easiest to overlook but will immediately influence quality of life for players,” adds Sarnovsky. “Nothing is more frustrating than shelling out gold and feeling like it barely did anything, so having the training increment in threes really helps alleviate that.”
Enjoy stablemaster upgrades
In addition, the team has some personal picks for changes that should really help them out as players, whether for builds or fashion.
“I’m excited for being able to respec for free, right in the UI,” says Beaver. “It will allow me to tweak a build on the fly, and even just try out new skills without cost, or a trip to a city. I think that’s a big win for flexibility and experimentation.”
“I’m big on aesthetics, so the ability to hide pieces of my clothing and armor is huge for me and is something I’ll be using on every single character of mine,” says Sarnovsky. “The best look isn’t always synonymous with the best stats.*”
Base-Game Boons
The team has taken a great many steps toward an improved player experience in this upcoming base-game patch, evident in the tremendous list of changes. What’s coming after Update 49? That would be telling…for now. Let us know which of the upcoming player experience changes excites you the most, and which additional features you’d like to see in the future via Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook.
Introducing the foundation blocks of Season Zero, Update 49 base-game patch arrives free for all ESO players simultaneously on PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles on March 9, 2026.
*Editor’s Note: ESO fashion, after all, is the REAL endgame.
