Can’t wait until Sunday for the season premiere of "Game of Thrones"? Then you might want to pick up The Elder Scrolls Online, which launches on Friday for Windows PC and Mac.
The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) takes place in the fantasy world of Tamriel — the setting of Bethesda’s last role-playing hit, Skyrim, released in 2011.
Most of the preliminary reviews from the press have been positive, but if anything is going to get gamers to plop down $59.99 — plus a monthly $14.99 subscription fee — it will be this epic trailer released on Friday.
Like World of Warcraft, it requires users to be constantly connected to the Internet so they can interact with other gamers, either on raid-style missions or massive player-versus-player (PvP) battles.
The success of an MMORPG depends mainly on how many people sign up and actually play the game. It's a factor that has kept would-be challengers like Star Wars: The Old Republic and DC Universe from reaching the lofty subscriber numbers of World of Warcraft.
Currently, 7.8 million people pay $14.99 a month to play World of Warcraft. That might seem like a lot, but those numbers have actually fallen from the game's peak of 12 million subscribers, reached in 2010.
Either people are tiring of World of Warcraft or MMORPGs in general. The Elder Scrolls Online is hoping for the former, especially with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game coming out in June.
