The Elder Scrolls Online's One Tamriel feature and "7 million players" number explained

Khajiit while you can.

News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor

Updated on June 13, 2016

The Elder Scrolls Online had a few announcements during Bethesda's E3 2016 conference last night.

The first was that ESO has had "7 million players since launch" - a number game director Matt Firor later explained on the ESO website.

"Since we commercially launched at the end of March 2014, we have had seven million people acquire the game, create accounts and play," he wrote. "Please note that this number does NOT include beta players (who played the game before we launched) and it also does not include players from our free trial (Xbox-only, in December of 2015). It all boils down to one thing: a LOT of people have purchased and played the game during the last two years, and we are grateful for each and every one."

The second announcement, One Tamriel, is a game-wide alteration that will make all areas of the world open to everybody, via enemy level-scaling. This is planned to roll out in the autumn.

It means that if you're normally too powerful for an area, you'll be adjusted down appropriately, and if you're normally too weak, you'll be adjusted up. That's what it sounds like. It's a way of enabling people to play together and ignore character-level gaps between friends.

Some key points:

Characters will have their level scaled the same way that we currently scale players to the level of DLC zones (Imperial City, Orsinium, Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood).
You will be able to explore the entire world in any sequence you wish - just walk across the world and you will always find appropriately leveled content.
You will be able to play and group with anyone in the game at any time (outside of PvP). No longer will you have to create a lower level character to play with a friend who has just joined the game. You will be able to group and adventure together from the moment your friend emerges from the tutorial.
We are dropping all PvE Alliance restrictions. You will be free to explore of all Tamriel, including other Alliances. It is up to you how you want to role-play your character while doing this. "Silver" and "gold" versions of zones will be replaced by Cadwell quest storylines that you can do in any order you wish.
Alliance restrictions will still be enforced in all PvP areas, of course. One Tamriel will not affect the PvP systems in Cyrodiil.
In general, higher level players will be the same "level" as lower level players, but they will have far more tools in their arsenal: better gear, more abilities, and of course more Champion points.
We will adjust gear rewards to scale appropriately to make sure that there is always a way to get more powerful via crafting, questing, PvP, and dungeon/trial boss loot drops.
All Trials and Dungeons will continue with standard and Veteran difficulty modes, and you will have to be Veteran level to play veteran dungeon modes.
The Coldharbour zone will be "roped off" from players who have not yet completed the quests that lead there. However, if you are invited to a group that is already there, or travel to a friend who is there, you can immediately access the zone.