This has been edited for length and clarity. For the full ESO interview, hit play below.
Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) introduced a new seasonal model this year, and with seasons, the Bethesda-published MMORPG is rolling out the most substantial sequential updates the game has released since One Tamriel. With it comes the return of The Thieves Guild, the expansion of PVP, the High Seas of Tamriel that bring naval elements and pirates to the continent, new challenging content with Sage’s Vault, and the new “Rumors” system. There is a lot to unpack, and we dove deep in this 30-minute interview.
During Summer Game Fest Play Days, we spoke with ZeniMax Online Studios‘ developers Nick Giacomini (Game Director) and Jason Barnes (Associate Design Director) about everything we’ll see this year. For the full interview, you can hit play on the audio above.
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About the Thieves Guild, Jason Barnes made sure to explain that this isn’t going to include the exact same things we’ve seen in the Guild across the Elder Scrolls franchise, and especially in ESO.
“This is a direct sequel, which is awesome. I think one of the things that we were looking at is when we shifted over to the seasonal model, we decided we were gonna start doing more changes, listening to player feedback and acting on it, and really making an effort to do that was like our big purpose, and we knew from a content perspective,” Barnes said.
The return of the Thieves Guild to ESO is also evolving the MMORPG.
“We’ve done the Thieves Guild [in ESO], but we’ve never told the story of what happens when a new one spins up somewhere [outside of Tamriel], what goes into that, and how [does the Thieves Guild] actually form.” But returning to the Thieves Guild wasn’t just about the past; it also included going back to an old zone to introduce new things, too. Among the new items that ZeniMax added, Barnes explained that they considered introducing a powder that players can throw at guards to distract them, and more ways to interact with the world, like hiding in plant pots and behind curtains.”
To make the world have more interactions also meant needing to expand and introduce a different system. Barnes said, “That was a system we hadn’t really touched in a while, plus everyone loves the Thieves Guild, so being able to revisit that story and tell a sequel story that connects in some ways and gives you a payoff was important.”
While people are in love with the Thieves Guild, it’s probably the High Seas of Tamriel that has players excited for a brand new chapter of ESO. Game Director Nick Giacomini said, “The High Seas of Tamriel is going to be completely different. It’s not just an amplification of the world, like it has a gameplay loop that is on and in the sea. There’s going to be naval battles there now, but we didn’t recreate Sea of Thieves in our game.”
The most important element is that the game isn’t just adding flavor, it’s adding new depth. Giacomini added, “We added naval battles for players to have to defend their ship, with fires everywhere, enemies are going to try to board, and players are going to be trying to attack enemy ships. We’ve never really done that before. It’s going to be really fun. You get to go underwater to explore, [those] physics are different there, and that’s going to open up new exploration mechanics and combat mechanics for players to engage in.”
He continued, expanding on the exploration, “Underwater, there are messages and bottles and things like that, that you would expect players to define and unlock a new story, unlock new rewards, and things like that. So we’re trying a lot more that’s experimental and different this year, and this is just a really great example of that. Like, the Night Market was, in terms of a very different type of zone experience, what I recalled as the event zone. Unlike most of our zones, it’s less sprawling, more tight, very action-packed, high level of difficulty, group-oriented, and just so much fun to engage in, and our players absolutely love.”
The High Seas of Tamriel is going to offer an entirely new world for ESO players to explore.
In addition to expanding on the past and branching into a new, unexplored future, ESO is also taking its time to ramp up the challenge for players throughout its seasons. That said, ZeniMax also explained how endgame content can change with the new Sage’s Vault, which doesn’t prioritize hard combat. The new puzzle-based dungeon pushes the boundaries of what the developers have done before. And the developers explained that the seasonal model allows for more of this kind of content.
Jason Barnes explained, “I always say with the seasonal model, that’s my favorite quote—because we wanted to try new things—is ‘throwing the spaghetti at the wall.’ The Sage’s Vault is the definition of that [saying]. We’ve always had lots of arenas, we’ve had trials, we’ve had dungeons, and they’ve all been heavily combat-oriented. With [the Sage’s Vault], we want to say, what if we could take a step back and do something that’s more geared towards the casual player, but the more story-oriented player?”
“Maybe the player that doesn’t necessarily do the hardcore combat, and so the team built this thing that has randomization to it. The rooms change order; you never know what you’re going into. We’re going to theme each room; we’re going to have a specific gameplay element that is unique and feels different,” he said.
“So there is some combat, but it’s not hardcore combat. Maybe I go into a room, and poison fills it up, and I need to figure out how to get rid of the poison before it overwhelms me, which may be to kill the creature that might be producing it. Or I may go into another room that is more stealth-focused, where these songstresses are singing from the shadows, and I can’t see them, and I have to listen,” before concluding.
“So I do a room, it gives me a treasure chest, I feel really good about that, and I can do these and do this loop over and over, but underneath it all is every room has a secret, and I need to figure out what that secret is, and how it connects to other rooms…That’s unlike anything we’ve really done before,” Barnes said.
The Elder Scrolls Online is offering players an alternative to just challenging talent in the endgame.
Additionally, Barnes explained that the Sage’s Vault is something that they want the community to work together to complete. “We’re not going to tell you how to [find the secrets], we’re going to give you clues, and if you search around the vault, you’ll find things that help you out. But we want to let the community work together, have chats and discussions, and figure out how it all connects. And yeah, it’s unlike anything we’ve really done before, and the team’s super excited about it.”
This is just a small bit of what we can expect in ESO over the coming seasons in the rest of 2026, and this is only a small part of our interview. Even with that, the updates and changes inspire players to invest more time or even come back to Tamriel as the MMO world continues to expand, build, and listen to the community to build it all up.
It’s this last part that the developers really wanted to drive home. This is a substantial year for ESO and its community. And that’s why Nick Giacomini said that he views this evolution of the game as co-developing with the community.
“This is the year that this isn’t just a temporary goal where we are trying to build, we’re trying to co-develop the game with our community,” Giacomini said, “That’s not just something that we’re saying. I hope that’s becoming clearer to players. This is their home, this is our home, and they should have a say in how that home is built. We want to build features and content that our players love.”
To dive deeper into the Elder Scrolls Online, listen to our full interview with the ZeniMax development team and learn more about the development of more challenging content and what’s to come.
