ZeniMax Online Studios has now confirmed the next step in Elder Scrolls Online‘s transition to a seasonal model, with the first season set to debut on April 2, 2026. For example, all major gameplay content released from now on will be free, with the revenue model shifting to battle-pass mechanics through the new Tamriel Tomes, offering both free and paid progression tracks.
Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk introduces the Night Market, a seven-week limited-time event zone set in Oblivion‘s Fargrave realm. Players pledge to one of three factions, completing PvE encounters with new storylines, quests, and an earnable in-game home. Event Zones are designed to return to Elder Scrolls Online in future Seasons, allowing players to experience content differently through alternate faction choices. Concurrent with Update 49 (scheduled to go live on all platforms on March 9, 2026), a dedicated quality-of-life team addresses longstanding player pain points: free skill and attribute respecs, accelerated Riding training, and expanded housing furnishing limits.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what’s been just announced; for the full lowdown, check out the dedicated article. Here, we’ll focus on the roundtable press interview that Wccftech attended, where Game Director Nick Giacomini and Executive Producer Susan Kath answered many questions about the future of Elder Scrolls Online.
In This Interview:
There’s no more content pass in 2026, correct?
Susan Kath: That is correct. The Content Pass was a transitional year thing as we moved into our final form of what we’re going to be doing in 2026 when we bring seasons in.
Nick Giacomini: This is a step toward trying to make all new content features accessible for all players.
Could you elaborate a bit more on the changes to the game’s difficulty in general?
Nick Giacomini: We’ve talked about this a little bit before. The way the players engage with ESO is extremely varied, right? We have players who engage just in small components of the game. We have players who are playing for hours every single day. We have very hardcore players. We have very casual players. So, hitting a sweet spot is inherently challenging. That said, we’ve heard loud and clear from players that more challenging overland difficulty is something that is highly requested, so we’re going to be introducing ways for players to be able to experience more challenging content if they want to.
There’s more to come on challenging overland difficulty. We’ll be releasing more information in the near future about it, but that’s one example where players will be provided an option to engage in more challenging content for greater rewards if they’d like to. Similarly, the Night Market is our first foray into a more challenging zone. You don’t have to form or come in with a group, but the content itself will facilitate players working together. It’s a difficult spot to hit, but our goal is to be able to provide players with options to engage in what level of difficulty they want to.
The Overland difficulty option was listed as being in Season Zero, but it’s missing from Update 49. So, when is it coming, and what does it look like in the first iteration?
Nick Giacomini: Yes, it is currently slated for season zero. We’re trying to be more transparent and part of that is that we’re showcasing more of our plans, so some dates may change, and that’s part of this. That said, yes, we’re expecting it to arrive toward the end of Season Zero. There’s so much that we want to do with this and there’s a lot more that we’re planning to do, but we wanted to get something into the hands of players sooner rather than later because it is highly requested. It’s something we’re excited about. Again, this is part of our philosophy for providing Elder Scrolls Online players with new content and new features that they can give us feedback on, so that we can take that feedback in and iterate on it and be able to provide an experience more tailored to what our players want. This first version is very much a first step and I would very much think of it that way, as we see if this is something that players want and what we need to change, and we’re planning to add to it over time. There will be options in this first version. We’re still aligning on the exact number of levels, but currently it’s, I believe, three, in addition to what is currently available. There will be three levels, from more difficult to way more difficult, that players can experiment with and try. The latest iteration featured additional XP and gold as rewards. That is also something that we’re hoping to add to over time. Again, this is very much a first version.
With the increased difficulty options, will that also be coming to Elder Scrolls Online’s Dungeons and Trials in the future?
Nick Giacomini: No. This is specifically for what we call overland zones, delves, public dungeons, and similar content, excluding dungeons and trials, which are group-based. Those already have different modes of difficulty that players can engage in, and we’re not going to be walking away from them. As for solo dungeons, as we build this feature out, the thinking is that there will also be different modes for players to engage in there, like a story mode for players who just want to go through the dungeon, experience the story and explore the space, and then mechanisms to increase the difficulty for players looking for greater challenges and better rewards.
Can you clarify whether all Elder Scrolls Online DLCs and expansions are now free from the start, or will this happen gradually?
Susan Kath: The way that’s going to work is going forward from this point, everything new that we do will be part of what we refer to as the base game. We will be incorporating some of the older expansions, such as Thieves Guild, Orsinium, and the Dark Brotherhood, into the base game. We’re working out the mechanism by which those will be granted to the existing customers, but basically, everyone will have those as part of the game. Things like the dungeon DLCs and stuff like that, those will all still remain exactly as they are now. They’ll be purchasable via the Crown Store or accessible if you have ESO Plus. As we go forward, we’ll also look at other opportunities where we can bring some of more of the older DLCs into the main game. But those three are the only three that we have planned right now.
At the beginning of this presentation, you mentioned that updates would be free, but some content might be paid. Could you elaborate on that?
Susan Kath: Yes, there are three tracks to the Battle Pass: two optional paid tracks as well as a free track.
Nick Giacomini: It’s optional and that’s very deliberate. Again, it’s a point of feedback that we heard from players a lot, about having to purchase a new Chapter every single year. In addition to that, it also stratified the population and made it more difficult to play with friends. Going forward, we want to make the content and features that we release available for anyone to be able to jump in and participate in.
On the topic of the Tamriel Tomes, the Elder Scrolls Online Battle Pass, will there be one for each season?
Susan Kath: Yes.
Will Tamriel Tomes replace ESO Plus, or will ESO Plus include the paid version of Tamriel Tomes? How will this work going forward?
Susan Kath: ESO Plus is not going away; it is actually getting an additional set of rewards that are being built into ESO Plus as part of all of this. ESO Plus subscribers will accumulate one token for every 12 months they are subscribed which they can use to unlock one Premium track for a Tamriel Tome of their choice.
Nick Giacomini: We’re also introducing some additional benefits to ESO Plus, which we discussed in the video, such as the furnishing limits that we’re going to increase. ESO Plus members are going to get increased capacity to transmute crystals and so on.
Can you speak further about crossplay? Is that something that is definitely coming?
Susan Kath: Crossplay is definitely coming, but it’s going to be a while. We are working on it. It is a complex problem for a game like Elder Scrolls Online, which was not built with this in mind. There are a lot of considerations that we have to make. We’ve talked a little bit about this in AMAs: you know, things such as the economic differences between the console realms and the PC realms. We have to figure out a way to merge this in such a way that’s fair for everyone who’s participating in this. There’s a lot of technical considerations underway. It’s going to be a while, but I assure you we are working on it. You’ll probably start to see over the next year stuff popping up on the public test server as we kind of start to test out some of these accommodations.
Will regular events be replaced, too, if event tickets are being removed?
Nick Giacomini: No. We love the events, and they’re going to continue to be a part of the things that we do throughout the year. Yes, event tickets are going away, but there’s still going to be rewards available for events that players will get to experience. Additionally, the events team will be releasing two new events this year. There’s going to be a Heart’s Day event in February and an event that might involve seas and ship battles and things like that. We’re still experimenting with it and trying to find the fun for this, but absolutely, events aren’t going away.
Night Market sounds really interesting. What will make it unique or different from other zones?
Nick Giacomini: Yes, I’m really excited for several reasons. We have already discussed the challenging nature of it. I think that’s really exciting. I’m personally looking forward to seeing it. It’s something that we’re going to be paying attention to and that we really want feedback on for players from players, is like, should we ramp it up? Should we ramp this down? But the challenging nature and the group-based focus is something that I’m really interested in, and I think the players are going to enjoy it. There’s going to be some never-before-seen elements in the zone that I’m excited by. The public event is a good call to action for players to participate in an epic battle. Allowing players to choose a faction should be interesting, and that race toward trying to have their faction win is going to be compelling.
It’s going to be a new way to engage with content that we’re really curious to see how players engage with and whether they like it. It’s also limited time; it’s called an event zone because it is like an event. We plan to gather feedback from it and iterate.
So, why not just make the Night Market zone permanently available?
Nick Giacomini: I think that there is the opportunity to make the Night Market permanent if players enjoy it. We talked about this and debated quite a bit. We landed on this, again, to allow us to experiment more and provide something that is a compelling experience and a call to action for players, as it is limited in time. If players like it, great, we can bring it back. We can potentially make it permanent. If it’s falling short in certain areas or if there are things that they’d like to see, that’s something that we can then address the next time that we bring it back, so that it’s more interesting.
Susan Kath: Yeah, Nick makes a really good point. That’s something we really want to do with a lot of content going forward. One of the benefits of moving Elder Scrolls Online away from the Chapter system is that we didn’t have many opportunities to go back and revisit things. This shift that we’re making kind of unlocks that for us. We can put things out there, like the Night Market. We can get feedback from the player base and now we’ll have time to make some changes and bring it out in a new form. I think you’ll see us doing that more with features that we are introducing to the game, doing this more in a collaborative manner with our player base than historically we were able to do because we were on to the next Chapter at that point.
With the Seasons model, will we see the addition of new permanent zones in the future, or will these be limited-time only, like the Night Market?
Susan Kath: No, we’ll do zones.
Is there no new normal zone coming to Elder Scrolls Online in 2026?
Nick Giacomini: We’re not quite ready to talk about that right now. There might be.
Similarly, is there no overarching story for this year? Are there just the two separate storylines for the Thieves Guild and Sheogorath?
Nick Giacomini: We’re not quite ready to talk about what some of the plans are and what’s likely coming toward the end of 2026 and the beginning of 2027. But if you’re talking about the year-long stories that we’ve done in previous Chapters, not this year. But that doesn’t mean that’s not a possibility for the future. We want to try to provide players with what we think is going to be the best experience for them and we don’t want to lock ourselves into something. This year is more about varying things up and being less predictable, moving away from that templated format that players have told us about. We’re deliberately evolving from that. This isn’t a revolution; rather, it’s an evolution: staying true to the roots while providing meaningful change for players, and this is a component of that. That said, there are absolutely overarching narratives that are going to take place, perhaps in a less structured format than the Chapter model provided, but we’re moving the timeline forward to introduce new, exciting stories for our players.
Susan Kath: I think a key thing that Nick touched on is that Elder Scrolls Online is about stories. That is a pillar of the company, of the studio, of the game. What we talk a lot about is how we can start to tell our stories in new and different ways. That’s what we’re exploring right now. It doesn’t rule out that we wil eventually do something that’s very similar to maybe what a Chapter has been in the past, but as we go forward into this year, we’re looking at how we can tell those things in different ways.
The roadmap also included new dynamic events later in the year, including multi-stage dynamic events. Can you talk a bit about those?
Nick Giacomini: Yes. I’m trying to temper my excitement a little bit because, well, I am very excited by this. It will allow players to experience the world in a more vibrant, living way, where things may pop up that they can experience that’s different than just the world boss that is at the same place on the map. This is going to be something that players will be able to stumble upon that they’ll be able to converge on to help or assist with, and it’s not just combat focus. That is absolutely going to be some of it, but it’s going to vary the type of content that players can engage with and allow us to provide a more living world and a new way to engage in the content, which we’re really excited about. However, I do want to temper expectations on this. We’re just starting to build this out. In Season One, which is coming in July, that will be the first time that players get to experience this a little bit, but it’s just a little bit to start.
Again, we’re building out this tech that is going to enable us to do so much more in the future. We want to hear what players think about it, but I think they will be excited. I get really excited to see what this leads to, particularly toward either the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027.
How much new quest and lore content can we expect in these new Elder Scrolls Online Seasons?
Nick Giacomini: Plenty. Susan said it well earlier, where stories are very much at the heart of Elder Scrolls Online. I personally love the lore of Elder Scrolls. It’s my favorite, it’s one of the things that we’re best known for, and we’re not walking away from that. We want to provide players with quests, with stories, with lore, so there’s going to be a lot that is similar that players will find very recognizable compared to what we’ve done in the past, because we enjoy it and players enjoy it. However, as Susan said, we will have different ways to engage with content and tell stories, and perhaps not the exact same cadence.
You mentioned that in the new Seasons, there will be 8,000 Endeavors as a reward. Is that every year, season, or month?
Susan Kath: Per season.
Can we choose activity-specific challenges for Tamriel Tomes, as in solely PvE or PvP challenges, and maybe solely overland or solely group challenges?
Susan Kath: It’s a mix within reason. If there’s a challenge that you don’t want to participate in, you can reroll.
Nick Giacomini: There will be a deep dive with more information about this. There are a number of free rerolls that players can use, and then they can spend gold if they want to continue rerolling beyond a certain point. There will be activities for all different play styles.
Could you elaborate a bit more on the PvP progression system coming to Elder Scrolls Online?
Nick Giacomini: There will be a lot more coming on this in the near future, but yes, there is going to be a progression system for PvP that we’re really excited about. You’ll be able to make progress on it from any aspect of PvP through Battlegrounds, through Cyrodiil, and through the Imperial City. Players will be able to unlock rewards throughout this period of time that this progression is active. Sorry, I keep saying period of time. I would think of it like a season, but the name is like a PVP season, but we haven’t decided on what the name of that is going to be. But effectively over the course of say six months, players will be able to make progress toward various rewards. There’s some exclusive cosmetics for PvP. Players get to hold on to those cosmetic rewards: they aren’t temporary. Once you unlock them, they’re yours. And then, we’re going to continue adding to it. Right now, the plan is that a couple of times a year, it’s refreshed, and players will have new things that they can progress toward and get rewarded for participating in PvP. It’s going to be more than we’ve done before.
Are there no new dungeons for this year? Is the Night Market aimed at the players who would normally expect dungeons?
Nick Giacomini: Right now, there are no new group dungeons planned for 2026. We do have a Trial that’s going to be coming. You mentioned the Night Market. And solo dungeons are going to be coming. That will allow players to engage in dungeon content solo, and there will be different difficulties and rewards associated with those. That was one of the trade-offs that we had to make in order to do solo dungeons. It’s one of the things that we’re trying to invest in generally. That Chapter model and its 18-month lead time was really restrictive in terms of what we could do on top of that to respond to player feedback to do more exciting things, and this is an example of that.
Believe me, we would like to do more dungeons. It is highly likely that dungeons are going to be in the future, but this year, as we invest more in the core experience of the game, this was one of those trade-offs that we had to make.
Susan Kath: I think one way of looking at this year is we’re coming at this from kind of two areas, right? One of them, with the dev team, was asking them what you would do if you could do anything, if you could give the players anything, and you weren’t actually having to focus on Chapters? And then the second part of that was in the surveys and the summits that we had going to the player base, we said, what would you have us do? Everything that we’re releasing here is the culmination of both of those things.
The Writhing Wall event definitely showed that there’s some work to be done on the testing side. Has this been improved as we head into Season Zero so that all the new features arrive intact?
Susan Kath: That is the plan. The Writing Wall and Content Pass were, as we said, part of the transition year. We started going down this road of trying to do new and different things. What we have learned from that is all being actually built in and planned. It was a growth experience for us and a learning experience about how we do these things going forward. I look at it from the standpoint of, we’ve been doing the same thing, you know, in essence, for nine years now. In many ways, that was the midstep between what we were doing before and what we’re doing from 2026 onward, which is pretty radically different. In answer to that, yes, we’ve learned a lot from this, and that’s all being built into our plans as we prep for the release of Season Zero.
What lessons have you learned after this transition year for Elder Scrolls Online?
Nick Giacomini: I think that it was a transition year, but it wasn’t enough, right? We need to do more for our players. There needs to be more change, and it needs to be more rewarding. We saw that come through a lot in the feedback. That was one of the biggest lessons for me of what we’re going to take going forward. We also stumbled a few times along the way. I think Writhing Wall is an example of that. There are things that we wish we could have done differently that we’re going to take forward with us.
Offering player choice and variety is another key element with this. I think that subclassing is a
good example where we introduced a system that did allow for a lot more choice for players but also introduced a number of issues and there’s a large number of players that now feel that it actually eliminated choice and made it so that they needed to participate in very specific builds in order to be viable, which is very counter to what we’re trying to set up. So there’s going to be a renewed effort on not just chasing the next new big thing, which historically we’ve done, but investing in the game and the core experience. The class refresh is a good example of that. I think some of the PVP things that we have going on this year are a good example of that. Solo dungeons is a good example of that. The 20-plus things that we’re fixing that players have addressed is a good example of that. So, providing players options, choice, and really improving just the core of Elder Scrolls Online. When we talk about being a 30-year game, that doesn’t involve just chasing that next big thing. It involves investing in a game for our players.
Susan Kath: Nick summed it up really well. We’re going to keep trying new things. We’ve talked about being more transparent, being more open about the stuff that’s coming up, putting things out in more even if it might still need some work. We’re not going to grow if we don’t stumble along the way. We have to try things. That’s what we’re going to do, and I think all of that comes together in an outcome that is actually going to be really fun and exciting for everyone.
Thank you for your time.
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