While there’s been a lot of chatter about The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered since it stealth-dropped earlier in the week, Oblivion isn’t the only Elder Scrolls game getting some love this week – The Elder Scrolls Online has confirmed its Scribing system is coming for free to all players.
It’s still a little way off – an update on the official Steam page suggests we’ll get it sometime in July – but the team wanted to share the news now as Scribing will be available in the Crown Store from Monday for those playing on the test server, whereas previously, it had only been available to those who owned the premium Gold Road chapter.
“Scribing is coming to the base game, free for all players as a claim in the Crown Store, in mid-July with an associated Golden Pursuit! You will see Scribing in the Crown Store on the PTS on Monday as part of this testing,” the team announced.
This means the ESO is “not selling Scribing in the Crown Store”, and if you missed the associated Golden Pursuit, “you will still be able to claim Scribing from the Crown Store, as this is a permanent move for it to the base game”.
“There will be a short window from June to July with the launch of Update 46 and the Gold Road zone moving to ESO Plus and the Crown Store where players who do not currently own Scribing will not be able to purchase/gain access to it,” the update concluded.
Not everyone’s happy about the news, however, particularly as Bethesda has confirmed “nothing is planned at this time” to compensate players who’ve previously paid to access Scribing.
“What about the people who paid for it originally, though?” asked one player. “Is anything getting added to the chapter for us? It’s been less than a year and the new chapter is already getting depreciated.”
“I just bought this the other month, do I get a refund?” questioned another.
In response, a Bethesda rep said: “No, nothing is planned at this time. However, the Scribing Golden Pursuit is rewarding AND equally available to both those who have already invested time into Scribing, and first-time Scribers. In fact, those who have used Scribing over the last year may find some tasks faster and easier to complete.”
“So, why exactly are we still paying for stuff?” said one respondent. “Suddenly, everything will be available for free to everyone. First the dungeons are stripped from ESO+, now a system goes free that’s not even been part of the game for a full year.
“Free stuff for everyone is great (I 100% support sub classes being free), but stripping all the advantages from paying customers, there’s less and less incentive to actually buy anything.”
ICYMI, Oblivion Remastered stealth-launched just five days ago, but it’s already clocked up over four million players. Remade by port developer Virtuos’ Paris studio, in collaboration with Bethesda, this new version is a ground-up remake built in Unreal Engine 5, designed to run at 4K 60fps. Earlier today, however, we reported that a Microsoft Store patch, released “for a few backend tweaks”, has inadvertently impacted UI and graphical settings for some players.
