The Elder Scrolls Online could take Asia by storm

More or less since the launch of World of Warcraft in 2004, game pundits and industry observers have been wondering what “the next WoW” will be. And while there have been thousands of MMORPGs launched in the time between then and now, the next WoW never really appeared. No MMORPG has matched that game’s global popularity. Even Blizzard itself hasn’t been able to top it, and it’s long-awaited next MMORPG game is stuck deep in development hell and may never see the light.

But I have seen the light, and I’m telling you: The Elder Scrolls Online could be the next World of Warcraft. This could be the game that unites Western and Asian MMORPG players once again, and takes the market by storm. Here’s why:

• It’s a known and respected brand. Offline RPGs may not be as popular in Asia as they are in the West, but The Elder Scrolls games have been around long enough that plenty of Asian gamers know and have played at least a title or two. When the Western gaming world was overrun with Skyrim memes last year, China’s gaming scene had arrow-to-the-knee jokes of its own. Offline (and not fully localized), the series has never had what it needs to pull in massive player counts in Asia, but they know the name Elder Scrolls.
• It’s online. This is pretty much a no-brainer for games in Asia these days. If it’s not online so people can play with friends, Asian gamers simply won’t play it. Look, for example, at the ten hottest games in China right now. Literally all of them are multiplayer-focused games.
• It’s fantasy-themed. This is another must-have condition for a game to be massively successful in Asia, it seems. This is not to say that Asian gamers don’t like sci-fi or modern-day games too, but if you look at the most popular games in many Asian countries you’re going to see an awful lot of fantasy MMORPGs and MOBAs.
• It looks pretty. Great graphics aren’t a requirement for a successful game in Asia, but as the recent popularity of Blade & Soul shows, they certainly don’t hurt! The Elder Scrolls games always look sharp, and that’s going to be a big draw in countries like China, where locally-developed games often set lower standards for graphical fidelity. (Though this could backfire if Elder Scrolls Online looks so good that it can’t be run on many Chinese PCs. My guess is that won’t be the case, though).
• It will probably be good. The reason Elder Scrolls name recognition is pretty strong even in Asia is that the games are usually good. Obviously Elder Scrolls Online isn’t out yet, but the previews we’ve seen so far certainly make it look pretty enticing. Check out the video below to see what I mean.

Of course, there are a few factors going against The Elder Scrolls Online, too. Bethesda and ZeniMax will have to resolve these issues if they want the game to be a global success:

• It’s not free. At least in the West, The Elder Scrolls Online will have a subscription fee and will cost some money up front. World of Warcraft is proof enough that Asian gamers will accept subscription models if the game is good enough, and it’s possible that Bethesda will choose to monetize the game differently in Asia anyway. But it still has to be said that free-to-play games are the way to go in Asia these days, and anything that’s charging users up front is going to be a tougher sell.
• It’s going to be a huge pain to localize. Like most MMORPGs, The Elder Scrolls Online is huge, and it’s fully voiced. That means it’s going to be a ton of work to localize, as Bethesda will have to translate mountains of dialogue and recruit large numbers of voice actors for any language it wants to localize to. Translating the fantasy-themed dialogue full of made-up words well may post a special challenge.
• It’ll have to compete with WoW. World of Warcraft may be old, but it’s still getting expansions, and the upcoming Warlords of Draenor may be enough to convince Asia’s MMORPG gamers that they don’t need a replacement for WoW just yet.

Despite that, I think that thanks to its name recognition and the fact that it fits into Asia’s favorite gaming niche — the fantasy-themed MMORPG — The Elder Scrolls Online has the best chance of any game yet to be the next World of Warcraft. If publisher Bethesda and developer ZeniMax Online want to get there, they’ve still got a lot of work left to do but the potential, at the very least, is there.