The Elder Scrolls Online will apparently launch with a subscription based model and then slowly move into free-to-play.

That’s according to Nicholas Lovell, founder of videogame business consultancy Gamesbrief, who has told Edge that “subscription games are on the way out.”

“It is conceivable that Bethesda will launch with a subscription service to attract the early adopters, because that is the model they understand,” he said. ”They will switch to free-to-play later, in the same way that many iOS games go from paid to freemium over their lifetime,” he added. “EA is struggling with The Old Republic, [but] almost everyone else is transitioning to free-to-play.”

The game was announced last week and has been in development at Zenimax Online since 2007. With more games finding success in the free-to-play model, will Zenimax be convinced to make the jump also? It will have to launch as a subscription due to all the groundwork already being in place, however the company could realisticly phase into F2P after a few months. It’s a good move to get more players into the game, however it can dilute the player-base with casual players who have no loyalty to the game.

Should it stay subscription or make the jump?

Source: Edge