Elder Scrolls Online

A previously PC-exclusive update for Elder Scrolls Online has finally made it's way to the Xbox One and the PS4. The update in question adds housing to the world of ESO for the first time since the game's release.

The new free update is called Homestead and with it, players will be able to purchase their very own home to call their own. Once a home is purchased, a player can customize the interior in a variety of different ways. The Homestead options available include roughly 40 different rooms and buildings types, ranging in size, price and functionality.

All of the available player houses in Homestead are instanced, so every player can own their own version of any house they please in the game world, so long as they've got the gold for it of course.

The very high-end houses are essentially separate islands off of the mainland of Tamriel. There are ten different types of islands, all of which are themed around one of the 10 playable races in Elder Scrolls Online.

MMO fans rejoice, the news you've been waiting to hear since the PC release of the Elder Scrolls Online is finally ready to be heard. That's right, due to a lack of interest, Zenimax have opted to drop the monthly subscription of the Elder Scrolls Online, and it will be opening the game to all players for free.

The new version of the game has been named The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, and whilst new players will still need to purchase the base price of the game, the monthly subscription afterwards will no longer be required. Instead, there will be optional in-game content that can be purchased as DLC content, and players can also purchase in-game currency to spend on certain cosmetic and customization options.

I think it's great to hear that The Elder Scrolls Online has dropped the subscription model. Simply having a one-off fee for the game should be enough as it is, especially considering the game costs as much as a new console game.

Talking about console

So, the Elder Scrolls Online has been quietly chugging along on the PC for a year now, but the release of the console version of the game has been delayed to a point where nobody knows when it's going to come.

In fact, there was a point where some gamers believed Zenimax had completely abandoned the console port. Recently, it was revealed that Zenimax have still been working on the Xbox One and PS4 version of the Elder Scrolls Online, but they don't want to release it until they have reached a certain developmental milestone with the PC version.

We are surprisingly nearing closer to that point each and every day, and Zenimax have been rumored to be gearing up for a console launch fairly soon. This week, a Microsoft store listing appeared for the Elder Scrolls Online, along with a date which read as the 24th of February.

Shortly after this date was added to the website, the store listing was changed, and the release date is now listed as "2015."

It seems odd that

For many, the concept of an Elder Scrolls online game has been buried within countless other games and content that has actually managed to see the light of day since Zenimax's announcement of ESO.

Whilst The Elder Scrolls Online did manage to launch on the PC, Zenimax also promised that the game would come to consoles, but it has been delayed well past it's original launch date, and without much talk about the game by Zenimax, it has mostly been forgotten.

That is until now however, as Zenimax and Bethesda have decided to make a bit of an announcement giving details on what the plans are for the console version of The Elder Scrolls Online in the near future.

This month, Zenimax stated that console ports of ESO is still being worked on, and in fact they are still 'steadily working on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of ESO.'

Zenimax then went on to mention that the console versions of ESO are 'playable and fun right now, but there's still some work to

I walked into a local video game retail store earlier this week, and I noticed that they had boxed copies of Elder Scrolls Online for the Xbox One ready for pre-order. I thought this was pretty odd, seeing as development on the game was still well under way, and the release has now been pushed back to late 2014.

Recent news suggests that you should probably not get your hopes up if you do spot a boxed copy of Elder Scrolls Online in-store like I did, because Zenimax Online Studios may have to push back the console release of the MMO game even further.

Creative director for the project, Paul Sage, has stated that their current main goal is to get the console versions of Elder Scrolls Online ready for release at some point this year, but he also mentioned to IGN that he can't promise the game will definitely release at some point this year for consoles.

According to Zenimax, the current delays are due to a series of issues and 'unique problems' specific to the various

Last Friday Zenimax Online chose to cut off access to guild banks temporarily, most likely in an attempt to stop players from duplicating gear and equipment via various bank exploits.

Whilst Zenimax didn't mention exactly why they disabled guild banking, it was disabled shortly after a Reddit post pointed out an exploit that allowed players to potentially get infinite gear and currency.

Zenimax has since banned thousands of cheaters according to community forum members, with most of the bans being related to in-game exploits and cheats. It sounds like it's been a rocky start for Zenimax and Elder Scrolls Online, but things will most likely get smoothed out in the future.

If you're a little disappointed that the console release of the Elder Scrolls Online has been pushed back past the PC release, hopefully this news should reassure you a little. MMOs are known for having troubles at their launch, and this is usually because the games are filled with thousands of hours

The MMO industry is a funny one - it's filled with games that from the eyes of someone unfamiliar with the genre will look almost identical to each other. The term "World of Warcraft clone" is given to pretty much every traditional MMO out there, and this lack of originality may be finally bringing the chances of succeeding with a new MMO in the typical environment to a halt.

That's why a lot of new MMO's are starting to take new paths - for example, last year's MMO third person shooter Defiance teamed up with the SyFy channel to create an ever-changing live action program that would evolve over time depending on the actions of those within the MMO game.

It was a nice concept, but despite being traditionally different than other MMOs and even being available on consoles, the game didn't really receive that much traction.

The Elder Scrolls Online seems to be taking the same cross-platform approach as Defiance, and although the Elder Scrolls series has a huge devoted