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Building a $2bn online game by breaking the rules

How the Elder Scrolls Online survived a difficult launch to become a quiet gaming success story.

The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO), a spin-off of the hugely popular fantasy RPG series from Fallout makers Bethesda, has been played by 24 million people and made $2bn since it launched. At the time, massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPGs, were all the rage, with World of Warcraft, Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot attracting millions of players. A recent report by US analytics firm Newzoo found that 2023's most played games in terms of monthly users were largely older, established titles such as Fortnite and Call of Duty.

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