General:ESO 2021 Global Reveal

ESO 2021 Global Reveal
Medium/Format	Online Interview
Date	January 26, 2021
Hosted By	Twitch, eso.com
Next	ESO 2022 Global Reveal

Global reveal for the Blackwood chapter and its Gates of Oblivion arc.

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Pete Hines: Hello, and welcome to the 2021 Elder Scrolls Online global reveal. I am Pete Hines, and along with the team at ZeniMax Online Studios, we're excited to show you what's in store for the coming year. We have a lot of exciting things to reveal, so let's get started right away with the man himself, studio director Matt Firor. Hi Matt!

Matt Firor: Thanks Pete! Hey everyone.

Pete Hines: Now Matt, before we start, tell us where we are.

Matt Firor: We're in Hunt Valley, Maryland, inside the global headquarters of ZeniMax Online Studios. With the entire ESO team working from home, I thought it would be a great moment to give ESO community an inside look at the ZOS studio. Pull back to curtain, show you where the magics been.

Pete Hines: And it's a lot of Magic, Matt. It's six years of content.

Matt Firor: It's amazing, isn't it?

Pete Hines: After all this time, we're still growing. We're standing in a suite that was built out for the expanded ZOS team and it hasn't even been occupied yet due to the quarantine. Now, you and I were talking about this earlier. The Elder Scrolls Online is the most successful Bethesda game over the last 4 years. That's, that's pretty big.

Matt Firor: And while that's exciting, I'm even more excited about how we got here. About everything we've done so far. Almost 18 million of you have now played ESO, with 3 million of you joining the game in the last year. In 6 years, we've taken Elder Scrolls Online from a PC exclusive, to currently running on 5 platforms, and we'll soon been expanding to next gen consoles. You, the ESO community, have never been stronger. You're journeying through Tamriel in numbers rival our console launch in 2015. You're coming from all over the world. From 240 different countries in the last month alone. In fact, some of our strongest communities are not native English speakers. ESO is truly a world-wide phenomenon, and we're still growing and thriving. That includes Tamriel itself. ESO has literally become the biggest Elder Scrolls game by so many different measures. The most land mass, the most stories being told, hundreds of hours of crafted quests we've added to the lore of Tamriel in ways that will affect all future Elder Scrolls games.

Pete Hines: So, these studio renovations which are really nice, but they're not just to make the office base nicer. You mentioned earlier you're growing as a team.

Matt Firor: Absolutely. Just like the game, the ESO team is growing. We're expanding to bring new developers so we can make more and more better content. We're also updating and replacing all of our game servers this year, to ensure that ESO runs smoothly for many more years.

Pete Hines: Now, Matt, it's obvious the pride you have in your studio and everything that your team is building, but what is all of this mean for the players?

Matt Firor: Well, we've created a world for you, a virtual world with the best community in gaming. A place that welcomes new players, a world where you can go anywhere, at any time, with anyone you choose, regardless of your level. From Cyrodiil to Summerset, Elsweyr to Skyrim, and beyond, dozens of unique places, many as large as a stand-alone game. Thousands of characters with real stories to tell, infinite ways to play together, or solo. For many years, we've been telling the best stories in gaming, taking millions of you on adventures, both large and small. Capturing your imagination as you adventure through Tamriel.

Pete Hines: So in other words, and I feel marketing pitch coming on here, but if you havn't played the Elder Scrolls Online yet.

Matt Firor: Yes, its the proverbial best time to start.

Pete Hines: Now Matt, I know you can talk all day about your studio, including some exciting plans for the future of ZOS that we're not ready to share yet, but what we're really here to talk about is 2021, and what's coming to the Elder Scrolls Online. So, what have you got for us?

Matt Firor: We're gonna take you deep inside the Gates of Oblivion year-long adventure, including a first look at the big new chapter, The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood. We'll share new details on the settings and the story, and we've got some great gameplay to show off.

Pete Hines: Now, Matt, before you go I understand you got something special for the community.

Matt Firor: Indeed I do. Let's get started with the world premiere of our ESO Gates of Oblivion trailer. Check it out, now.

[Shows The Elder Scrolls Online: Gates of Oblivion - Official Cinematic Announcement Trailer]

Introduction

Pete Hines: Wow! There is a lot to take in in that trailer. Fortunately, I have the perfect person to tell us about what we just saw, and that would be creative director, Rich Lambert. Hi Rich!

Rich Lambert: Hey Pete! I'm super excited to be here, and big hello to everyone around the world.

Pete Hines: So, Rich, Let's start with somebody that stuck up like a sore thumb in that trailer. And you know me, I'm not great at lore, but even I can tell of Mehrunes Dagon when I see him. So, what is he up to?

Rich Lambert: Well, he's up to his typical princely things. He's the Prince of Destruction, Change, Revolution, and he is up to trying to conquer Nirn, you know. This is what he thinks is his realm of Oblivion, and it's rightfully his, and so we'll have a lot more details on just a bit, though.

Pete Hines: So if he's after Nirn, that means everybody in Tamriel is in danger, right?

Rich Lambert: Always.

Pete Hines: Can't wait to hear more about that, but there's some other familiar faces in there as well, including a trio of pretty powerful woodmen that we see in there. Tell us more about that.

Rich Lambert: Well, the Bosmer in pigtails, that's Eveli Sharp-Arrow. She's from Orsinium, and she has been one of the most requested bring backs for a very, very long time. There's Lyranth, who is a Dremora, and she was from the base game and Imperial City. And then we have character who I will call the Imperial. And she represents the player, or the Player's journey throughout the entire storyline.

Pete Hines: But we're not just seeing familiar faces, we're also seeing a really iconic location. And it's pretty clear from the name of our year-long adventure, we're headed back to Oblivion, the settings for The Elder Scrolls 4. But we don't start the journey in the Deadlands, so where are players gonna visit first?

Rich Lambert: You're gonna spend a lot of time in the Blackwood area. And this area reaches from southern portion of Cyrodiil, all the way east to Shadowfen. And the main story takes you to bits and pieces of the Deadlands, so you get to see it, but really, the focus on the Deadlands will be on the fourth quarter.

Pete Hines: So you're gonna get a little bit of Deadlands early on, but the full experience is really gonna happen later in this year-long adventure.

Rich Lambert: It will, and this our take on Mehrunes Dagon and his realm you know. We're 800 years in the past, so it's gonna look and feel just little bit different.

Pete Hines: Now, in real time, it feels about 800 years since you and I worked on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It was only 15 years ago, it just feels like a lot longer. I think that was your first game at Bethesda.

Rich Lambert: Yeah.

Pete Hines: What do you remember from working on Oblivion so long ago?

Rich Lambert: It was such a blur. Um, I remember the hype being crazy and I think one of my favorite moments was the very first E3 that we did, where you know, poor Todd was so absolutely tired from doing like a hundred different walkthrough every day.

Pete Hines: Do you, do you happen to remember the very first day of E3, where we were showing off Oblivion where that AC went out at our half of the convention center? So we can't fans that we found to keep the room cool, but the PC was running so hot from all the demos. We had the fans pointed in the PC. We were like "Everybody else can fan themselves, we can't have the PC, PC crashing." But you're right, the expectations were amazingly, amazingly high for Oblivion that year.

Rich Lambert: They were almost unrealistic at the time, and I think you had a quote, something along the lines of "The expectations were so ridiculous, that people thought we were going to cure blindness and heal the sick", or something like that.

Pete Hines: Sounds like something I would say, right? Ok, but back to this year's game. So we've touched on the big bad, and we touched on some of these iconic characters, and we talked about the locations a little bit, but the question that I have next is, why are we here? What is going on in the Gates of Oblivion that brings us here?

Rich Lambert: Well this is all about Mehrunes Dagon, and since the First Era, he has been trying to take Tamriel over. And this story that we're telling this year is essentially a deal with the devil, deceit, and daedra. So without spoiling things too much, I'll kind of set the tone where, the Longhouse Emperors entered into a pact with Mehrunes Dagon, and they wanted to rule all of Tamriel in his image. And so, he decided that he would create four ambitions, or weapons of mass destruction to give them that power. And, of course, things go wrong, and it's up to the player to discover what this plan is, what the ambitions are, and neutralize them to save the world.

Pete Hines: I just want to say, that I can't believe a deal with Mehrunes Dagon went sideways. Like that, is this a first in Elder Scrolls history?

Rich Lambert: Hah, no.

Pete Hines: Ok, so look. I know many of you out there are big fans of the story telling in ESO, and so we wanted to take a minute to hear from our Loremaster to find out more about Blackwood, and the story of the Gates of Oblivion adventure.

Lore

Leamon Tuttle: Hooray. Let me set the stage of what life is like in Tamriel during the Gates of Oblivion adventure. Particularly the regions you'll be exploring. For you Oblivion fans, were about 800 years in the past. Prior to the events of TES 4, a wise emperor named Uriel Septim the Seventh ruled the Empire. A golden age of power and prosperity, until he got stabbed by a Dagon cultist. Cultists, right? They're the worst. But that's another story. During the age of The Elder Scrolls Online, things are a little rougher around the edges. Petty kings and grand alliances have been fighting over Cyrodiil for years during a period called the Interregnum. Its total pandemonium, and no one sits on the Ruby Throne. Blackwood, the region you'll be visiting, is in southern Cyrodiil, straddling the great Niben River and stretching east into the Argonian homeland of Black Marsh. It's a tough place to live. You got swampy roads, spooky Ayleid ruins, giant man-eating frogs, the whole deal. Even so, its location at the mouth of the Topal Bay makes it strategically important. So you got a mismatch of different cultures all living eyeball to eyeball here. Argonians, Imperial, and even Khajiit from Elsweyr, cobble up in messy pieces as best they can, while wars rage all around.

Here's a few of the factions that you'll run into during your quests. First, there are the defenders of Leyawiin, the Ivory Brigade. These battle tested soldiers serve the chamber of legates, which is kinda a ruling council for the city. Leyawiins been on the receiving end of a bunch of invasions and occupations. The Ivory Brigade has no intention of ever letting that happen again. Then we have the Blackfin Legion, an army of Argonians loyal to Keshu, a big time veteran of the Alliance War, and an important figure in Argonian society. They're based in Gideon, and protect Argonian interests in the region. We also have one of my favorite factions, Sul-Xan. They're a deranged tribe of Argonians who worship Mehrunes Dagon as the True Egg-Child of Sithis. You know I love my Argonians. Combine them with one of my all-time favorite Princes, Mehrunes Dagon, and you know, you gotta stew going.

I'm super excited to for everyone to dive into this year's story. You're gonna dig it for sure.

Get Started with Blackwood

Pete Hines: Thank you Loremaster Leamon. Before I get back to my conversation with Rich, let's talk about how you can get started on your Gates of Oblivion adventure. This year's chapter, Blackwood, is available for pre-purchase right now. Head to elderscrollsonline.com, or your favorite online retailer and pick it up. Everyone who pre-purchases will immediately receive an in-game mount, and trust me, you don't wanna miss out on this year's. We got a new mount type this year. Get ready to travel across Tamriel on a Welwa. And anyone that pre-purchases before March will immediately receive a new and exclusive in-game pet. We've a few different to pre-purchase, catering to both new and long time veterans. Plus, a bunch of exclusive in-game items you'll get when the Blackwood chapter launches later this year, including an outfit style, crown crate, pet, and more. And with the digital collector's edition upgrade, you can get even more awesome in-game exclusives. We got all the info you need on our website, so be sure to check it out and get your exclusive mount and pet today.

What to Expect

Pete Hines: Ok Rich, let's tell folks a little bit more about what they can expect.

Rich Lambert: This is another year-long story where all four major content releases help tell that story of the Gates of Oblivion. And it's gonna be a very familiar cadence as well, where we have a dungeon DLC in quarter 1 and quarter 3. We have the chapter release in quarter 2, and then the final fourth quarter wraps up the entire season with a story DLC. And the very first is called Flames of Ambition, and that's the dungeon DLC.

Pete Hines: Now, what if dungeons aren't my thing, or I don't have three friends to run it with?

Rich Lambert: We have a couple of different things that you can do, and we have dungeon finder tool that will help you get into those dungeons with a pickup group. You can join a guild using the guild finder that will help you find people of you know, similar interests. Or, you know, if you're not really into dungeons at all, you don't have to worry about it, because the dungeons help set the tone and some of the framework for the story, but they aren't mandatory.

Pete Hines: Gotcha. Now, we always talk about The Elder Scrolls Online is welcoming to new players, both as a game and as a community. But, if I'm a new player, how do I get involved with The Elder Scrolls Online? Where do I start?

Rich Lambert: I think you just jump in. You just start playing the game and exploring the world, and ask questions. Our community is unbelievably welcoming. They will go out of their way to help you and answer questions with new players. It's your path, it's your choice. And so do what makes you feel good, and what interests you. If you're interested in getting in on the Gates of Oblivion storyline right away, we actually have a new prologue quest coming soon, and that's free for all players.

Pete Hines: And that's also got things if you're dying to try it The Elder Scrolls Online, and whether it's a free trial week that we do on different platforms throughout the year. So even if you're not entirely sure about Elder Scrolls Online, there's always an easy way to sample a little bit and see what all the fuss is about.

Rich Lambert: Absolutely.

Pete Hines: Now, let's talk about the biggest part of this year-long adventure, which is that Blackwood chapter. What can player's expect when Blackwood releases?

Rich Lambert: So, this is our biggest content drop of the entire year. It's similar in size and scope to Elsweyr, where it's all one zone. We don't split the content up like we did in Greymoor across multiple zones. It's roughly 30 hours of new content. There's new public dungeons, new delves, there's group bosses, there's a new dark anchor type of gameplay that we're calling Oblivion Portals. There's also a new 12 player trial for our veteran players.

Pete Hines: And thanks to One Tamriel, all of that content is available to regardless of whether you play by yourself like I do, or you play with others, whether you're low level or high level, that you can just play wherever you want, with whomever you want.

Rich Lambert: It's your choice. Do what makes you happy.

Pete Hines: And anything else we can expect?

Rich Lambert: Actually, we have a brand new tutorial, and we've built this special for this chapter. And one of the long requested features of our tutorial is to let players have their own choice in the story that they want to play in. So we did that this time around where there will be some basic tutorial things that we teach you how to swing your sword, how to you know, equip abilities, and move around. But then there is also a moment in there where you can choose your path, and you can choose any of the stories from base game all the way to through all of the chapters on where you want to go to next.

Pete Hines: You know me, I am always rolling new characters and starting again, and this seems like a really fun way to get in and start a new experience in Elder Scrolls Online. So Rich, let's say I'm somebody fortunate enough to get their hands on a Series S or a Series X, or a PlayStation 5, what can you tell us about the next generation version of Elder Scrolls Online.

Rich Lambert: Blackwood launches in June. PC, Mac, Stadia, Xbox One, PlayStation 4. And the next gen clients that we talked about late last year, we're still working on those, so we'll have more details on those soon. But what I can say is ESO runs unbelievably well in compatibility mode on both the Series X and PS5.

The Sites you will See

Pete Hines: Ok Rich, so we've talked about the story.

Rich Lambert: Yup.

Pete Hines: We've talked about some of the key characters. We've talked a little bit about the location, but I wanna explore more here. Tell us more about what players can expect, the sites, what they're going to see when they explore throughout the Gates of Oblivion adventure.

Rich Lambert: So like Greymoor, you're gonna see both familiar and unfamiliar places. We're 800 years in the past. So the familiar locations are really on the western portion of the zone. That Topal Bay area and that contains the city of Leyawiin, which you got to explore a lot of in Oblivion. It's gonna feel very familiar, but slightly different. As you progress east throughout the zone, as you get closer to Shadowfen, there's more bugs, there's more swamps, and this is where it starts to be our kind of own thing. And were gonna take you to Gideon, which hasn't been seen since 1994 in Arena.

Pete Hines: Now, we got to know the Khajiit in the Elsweyr chapter, now were headed to the home of the Argonians. So what can you tell us about what we should expect?

Rich Lambert: So this is not the first time that we've explored Argonian culture. We did some of that in the Murkmire DLC. Blackwood though is gonna feel very different. This is more of a melting pot, and Murkmire was extremely isolated. So, there's this really cool contrast, you know, the clashing cultures. Argonians meet Imperial.

Pete Hines: That is two clashing cultures, if you were gonna pick two. There's another area I think players are going to be very to explore, and thats of course the infamous Deadlands. What can you tell us about this unique area of Blackwood?

Rich Lambert: Deadlands in the Blackwood chapter is gonna feel very familiar. It's that iconic fire and brimstone, jagged edge environment that you got to see and explore in Oblivion. You're gonna get to explore instances or pockets of it as you progress throughout the main story, so kinda like Clockwork City, you're transported there. You go, and you kinda do your thing. But really, exploration of the Deadlands doesn't happen until the fourth quarter DLC, and then you're gonna spend all your time there.

Pete Hines: Now let's take a closer look at three biomes from Blackwood with art director Cj Grebb

Biomes

Cj Grebb: When it comes to biomes in ESO, we always begin and end with the lore and history established by previous Elder Scrolls games. We're happy to indulge our player's nostalgia, and remind them of why they fell in love with these lands in the first place. With the year long adventure being loosely based on TES 4, we embraced the opportunity to go back into TES history, and explore a land that we haven't had a chance to visit in 15ish years. TES 4 is in my opinion the epitome of classic fantasy, and we knew this had to be injected into the art going into Blackwood and the Gates of Oblivion adventure.

There are three big regions in Blackwood. Each one's distinct, and we can't wait for players to immersing themselves into it. First is the Niben Forest. We're talking rolling hills, lowland swamps. Player's should recognize in those hills the distinctive landscapes of Cyrodiil, which of course, lays directly to the north. This is the region where Leyawiin is located. Our artists have a lot of fun going back, adapting those classic, Tudor style in the buildings of the original Leyawiin, bringing them into the ESO style. Distinct colors, stylings of the buildings, its all there. Players will also find adventure in Blackwood Bog. This is where you'll find Gideon and Rockguard. This is a wet, open area. We were very excited to come back and fully realize this city which Elder Scrolls players haven't seen since Arena. Gideon allowed us to explore the interesting cultural mash up of the Imperials and the Argonians, as we get closer to Blackwood's shared borders with the Argonian's land of Black Marsh. The surrounding bog is visually shaping up to be one of my favorite locations in Blackwood. Anyone that's been lucky enough to see a genuine castle ruins in Europe or the UK should recognize these areas instantly. They call back to a deeper history of before time, which is always at the center of everything we're doing when we're creating an Elder Scrolls biome. And then, we have something completely different. Players will get a kick out of Gloomire, home of the Rockgrove. In Rockgrove, it was a lot of fun to explore this tribe of Argonian daedra-worshippers. It resulted in one of my favorite new motifs in the chapter. The integration of distinctly Argonian decorative elements we're so used to seeing in their architecture, and their armor. Had to be melded with that specific edged, knife-like shapes we know from daedric armor. And pulling together was a challenge, but ultimately looked to my eyes like something we perfectly balanced in terms of both ideas.

And last but not least, we gotta talk Deadlands, right? Creating a new daedric architecture and motifs specifically for the realm of Oblivion has been really amazing. This is one is one area where simply copying past Elder Scrolls games was not gonna be sufficient for us. There's a lot of ground to cover with daedra when it comes to them militaristic, stratified aspects of their culture. And although, we don't get to see all of it in Blackwood, rest assured, we had to think about it for the future. Our take on the Deadlands is only the tip of the iceberg, or should that be volcano? Nevermind. We'll give the players a small taste of it in Blackwood, with more to come.

On Mehrunes Dagon

Pete Hines: Alright Rich, it's time to talk daedra. Now we've talked about it a little bit before, but there's a reason were headed to Blackwood, and it's a familiar name for Oblivion fans. Mehrunes Dagon, how big a deal is the Daedric Prince in this year's adventure?

Rich Lambert: He's the anchor for the entire year. It's all about him and his latest scheme to take over Tamriel.

Pete Hines: And he's such a big deal, we actually have him here in the ZOS studio.

Rich Lambert: That's gonna look amazing in my office.

Pete Hines: That will look amazing in anybody's office. And Dagon has a ton of followers, and some of whom we saw in the trailer. Will players encounter a lot of worshippers while playing the game?

Rich Lambert: For sure. Daedric Princes are not allowed to meddle in the world of Tamriel. They need help in order to mess around in the mortal world. And that's where the cultists come into play. They do the bidding for the Princes, and you're gonna encounter a lot of them this year. There's a lot more to Dagon. For more, let's go back to Loremaster Leamon.

Expanding on Dagon

Leamon Tuttle: I don't make any secret to the fact that Mehrunes Dagon is one of my all time favorite Daedric Princes. We know a lot about him, but it's all bound up in weird subtext. Awesome books like Mankar Camoran's Commentaries. How reliable are those books? We don't really know, which is classic Elder Scrolls. Reading Dagon's book, the Mysterium Xarxes, makes people write a lot of weird stuff. According to Cameron's Commentaries, Dagon began as an avatar of hope, but what does hope really mean? Where does hope intersect with ambition, and where does ambition intersect with Magnus?

A lot of people have asked me what's different about Dagon in the Second Era compared to the Dagon we encountered in TES 4. The truth is, Princes are bound to their nature, but the plans evolve. In our time period, Dagon hasn't exactly figured out all the delicate science that let him pull off the Oblivion Crises, but he's learning, and that's never good. Will you learn more about him through the Blackwood in Gates of Oblivion story? Yes. Can I give you the specifics? Absolutely not. Spoilers, right? I will say that over the course of the year, you'll get a better sense of who Dagon is as a character. And what's under all the bluster? What really matters to them. You get a chance to see all of that.

Dagon has a lot of cultists that worship him, mostly because he is so approachable. You know, not him specifically, but his world view. He taps into that rebellious streak we all have. I think all of us here have a little anarchy tucked away somewhere. Dagon personifies that. He's the god of flipping tables. There's something cathartic about that whole way of looking at things. We love stability, but if you've walking down the beach and you feel that drive to kick over a sandcastle, and just kinda see what the ocean makes of it, that's Dagon. Players will see and hear a lot from the Prince of Destruction and Revolution in this year's content. It's gonna be nuts. Hope you all are ready.

Companions

Pete Hines: Before we wrap up, we've got one more thing that you have been asking about. And Rich, I wonder if you wanna let them all in on what you've been working on?

Rich Lambert: I'm very excited to announce that we'll be introducing companions later this year. And companion are adventuring buddies. They're unlocked by Blackwood through quests, and they provide utility and support for players as you explore the world of Tamriel. Once unlocked, you can level them up, you can have dialogues with them, you can equip them with gear, set their combat behaviors and abilities, and they'll be your permanent companion from here on out if you choose.

Pete Hines: That sounds awesome. Now what should I expect from a companion, especially a guy like me who plays Elder Scrolls Online solo.

Rich Lambert: You're always gonna have somebody there for you. If you need a little bit of extra healing, or a little bit of extra damage or tanking, you have somebody there in your pocket so to speak. And you can use them pretty much everywhere, except for maybe PVP, but we're going to a lot more of those, and have a deep dive as we get closer to chapter launch.

Wrapping Up

Pete Hines: And that's a wrap. Thanks to Rich, Leamon, and Cj for sharing so many exciting details about Gates of Oblivion. And a big thank you to Matt Firor who invited us into his home away from home. But most of all, thanks to all of you for tuning in. Remember, Blackwood is available for prepurchase right now. Head to elderscrollsonline.com for all the details. And now, I'll turn it over to Gina and Jess for a special ESO Live. Thanks, and take care.