The Elder Scrolls Online is finally opening the doors to Tamriel for beta testing.
Game maker ZeniMax Online Studios, in conjunction with Bethesda Softworks,
announced Monday that fans can now officially sign up for the beta program, which will begin at a later, undisclosed date.
Bethesda
announced in May that the popular Elder Scrolls role-playing game — almost two decades old — was being developed as a massively multiplayer online (MMO) title. The game was described last summer as an entirely new chapter of Elder Scrolls history, set before the events of Skyrim.
"We have been working hard to create an online world in which players will be able to experience the epic Elder Scrolls universe with their friends, something fans have long said they wanted," ZeniMax director Matt Firor said in May.
Beta testing allows the game studio to gather positive and negative feedback from fans before finalizing the product for launch. It also provides a sort of tease for what's to come, and hopefully generates word-of-mouth excitement for the eventual game, which is expected to reach PCs and Macs later this year.
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For the first time in Elder Scrolls history (including titles like Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind) the game will expand from its single-player roots to go online as a massively multiplayer undertaking. The new Web-based title will still take place on the continent of Tamriel, set 1,000 years before Skyrim,
according to NBCNews.com. Players will join a war to take control of the capital providence of Cyrodiil and the throne of Tamriel, the site said.
"This was the chance to actually deliver the whole world of Tamriel and let players explore the whole thing and do it with friends," Firor told NBCNews.com.
Neither ZeniMax nor Bethesda immediately responded to PCMag's request for comment.
Beta testing sign-ups are
open to the public, but only a limited number of people will be chosen.
"It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years," Firor said during last year's reveal. "The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made — and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise."
As an added treat, the company also released an action-packed, almost six-minute-long cinematic trailer for The Elder Scrolls Online (below).
Earlier this week,
Bethesda announced that the latest Skyrim add-on, Dragonborn, will be available on Steam for PC users beginning Feb. 5.
For more, see PCMag's
review of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and the slideshow above, as well as
If You Like Skyrim, You'll Love These Games.
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