Bethesda “Pushing” to Make TESO Playable on Xbox One Without Xbox Gold

Official Xbox Magazine got some interesting info out of The Elder Scrolls Online’s lead gameplay designer Nick Konkle at Gamescom, particularly concerning the Xbox One version of the title. Most of our readers are probably aware of the fact that you need to pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription to play online on an Xbox 360 and Xbox One, but Bethesda is trying to convince Microsoft to make an exception for their subscription-based MMO:

As to the possibility of making the game’s online offerings available to non-Gold subscribers, Hines reminded us that Gold is a service, the benefits of which aren’t specific to any particular title. “We feel like most people such as yourself currently pay that subscription not to pay a game, but to play all games online.

“So in that sense, when I’m playing Call of Duty online I don’t feel like I’m paying my monthly Xbox Live sub for Call of Duty – I’m just paying it because that’s a thing that I do, and whatever game I’m playing at the time is the one that benefits.

“Having said that,” he went on, “we have been in talks with Microsoft about that very thing, and seeing whether or not there’s any room to change their minds about that, for folks who are only paying The Elder Scrolls Online and don’t want to pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription, just to pay the Elder Scrolls Online.

“The answer right now is that’s the way it works, but it’s something that we’re aware of and we keep pushing on, to see if there’s something that can be done. We’ll let you know if there’s movement there.”