Elder Scrolls Legends, the free-to-play collectible card game entry in the far-reaching Elder Scrolls series has been in beta on PC since last year, but Bethesda announced today that the game is now officially live. In a press release, the developer wrote, “After several months of beta feedback from players and a myriad of improvements, additions, and optimizations, we’re extremely proud to officially remove the ‘Beta’ tag from The Elder Scrolls: Legends, and formally launch on PC.”
In addition to the full release, Bethesda announced the dates for future milestones, including the game’s first content update: The Fall of the Dark Brotherhood.
March 23 — Global iPad launch
April 5 — Fall of the Dark Brotherhood expansion launches
April — Global Android tablet launch
May — Twitch Integration, Spectator Mode, and Gauntlet Mode (mini-tournaments players compete in with their own decks)
Spring — Mac OS Launch
Summer — mobile phone launch
Also this summer, Elder Scrolls Legends will as its first new card set and the game will launch on mobile phone platforms. More details on these updates will be revealed during E3 in June.
The Fall of the Dark Brotherhood will be “a new PvE Story that tosses players into the role of a double agent hired to infiltrate the ranks of The Dark Brotherhood. Recruited by a sinister group to bring down the infamous and fan-favorite Elder Scrolls guild of lethal assassins, players will need to make key choices that both impact which missions you’ll play and decide the story’s ending.”
The story is set before the events of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and it will introduce 40 additional cards. The expansion can be purchased using in-game gold or real money either as individual maps, or as a bundle for $20.
As a bonus for Elder Scrolls Online players, anyone who picks up the expansion will also get a Doom Wolf mount to use in the MMO.
In anticipation of these announcements, last month we talked briefly with Bethesda’s VP of PR and marketing, Pete Hines about some of Bethesda’s plans for the game.
GameSpot: How aggressive do you think you’ll be with making changes to the game when it feels like cards need to be rebalanced?
Pete Hines: I think change is something that’s important so that players understand that we’re not just gonna allow somebody to figure out a certain deck, and then everybody says “red deck wins.” That’s not fun.
We want aggressive changes to be something that the game is known for; that we’re willing to make those changes, but not just change for change’s sake. If it’s fine, or if it’s doing well, and we don’t do anything for four months because it’s in a good spot, that’s great! But, I think when the designers see the numbers and see things that are out of whack or there’s an anomaly, where one deck is just getting destroyed because of a specific card, we are willing to make those changes and the players know that this is not something that is just going to go unchecked for six months or a year.
We’re managing those expectations now just so that folks understand, going forward, this is how we want to operate as a product. That we listen to your feedback, we look at the numbers we’re constantly reevaluating and we’re going to make those changes, and communicate what we’re doing and why, and we’ll change stuff again if we need to.
Regarding introducing new people to the game, do you feel like this is aimed more toward getting Hearthstone players over, is it more trying to grab Magic the Gathering players, is it an in between kind of game?
We are looking to build a game that has accessibility. From someone who doesn’t understand strategy card games–maybe they love Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online and they heard about this strategy card game and they want to try it, but have tried one before. Maybe they’ve played other strategy card games and hit a wall or ceiling and just said “I’m done” or “I feel like I’ve gotten everything out of it, I’m gonna go try something else.” I think we are different enough and unique enough in what we have and we’ve go a lot of strategic depth and breadth that a more-experienced player can come in and quickly go to the deeper end and figure it out, they can build a wide variety of decks or draft a bunch of decks or try chaos arena.
I think we do a good enough job of bringing you in, having a full, single-player campaign, where we’re not only giving you some kind of experience, it feels Elder Scrolls-like and like telling a story, and introducing you to characters giving you rewards and cards. But we’re also not assuming that you know how to play a card game, and if you don’t, we’ll teach you the basics. But if you do know the basics you can blow right past that stuff and get into the things that are more challenging or interesting to you.
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