The Elder Scrolls Online's Year of Seasons: Free Greymoor, Layoffs and a Road Back to Skyrim
ESO swapped yearly Chapters for free 90-day Seasons, then lost 213 staff and pushed key features into 2027. Here is where Bethesda's MMO stands in November 2026, and what Skyrim players can expect next.
For a decade, The Elder Scrolls Online ran on a simple rhythm: one big paid Chapter a year, plus smaller updates in between. In 2026, ZeniMax Online Studios tore that calendar up. Then the studio was hit by layoffs. The year that followed has been the strangest in the game's history, and also one of its most generous.
The latest milestone came on 9 November 2026, when the Greymoor Chapter and the Markarth expansion, ESO's earlier adventures in western Skyrim, became free for all owners of the game. A Skyrim-themed Golden Pursuit focused on Antiquities runs until 2 December, with Antiquities opened to every player.
From Chapters to Seasons
ZeniMax and Bethesda unveiled the new plan on 31 March 2026. Instead of a yearly Chapter, ESO now runs Seasons that average 90 days, each with its own theme, and each "free to all players who own the game."
- Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk launched on 2 April on PC and consoles at the same time. It opened the Night Market, a seven-week event zone in the Oblivion realm of Fargrave, with a free player home, Night's Den, for joining one of three factions.
- Update 50 on 8 June brought Challenge Difficulty, an optional four-tier system that makes overland zones, delves and story instances tougher for more rewards.
- Season One brought back the Thieves Guild in a refreshed Glenumbra, plus a Sheogorath questline, new Favors daily quests and Rumors, scavenger hunts with no quest markers.
The game also arrived on PC Game Pass on 2 June 2026.
The layoffs, and what slipped
In the middle of all this, ZeniMax Online Studios was hit by job cuts during Microsoft's wider Xbox restructuring. A Maryland WARN Act disclosure, reported in July, put the number at 213 employees. Game director Nick Giacomini said the game remains active and the studio is committed to its community.
The cuts reshaped the schedule. Pushed into 2027:
- The Crimson Veldt Trial, a 12-player endgame raid with mounted combat.
- A broad class and combat overhaul.
- Update 52, now set for January 2027, with the Jerall Pass PvP zone and Rimegales, a set of Dynamic Encounters in Skyrim.
The autumn plan that survived still looked busy. Update 51 arrived on 28 September, a week later than planned, with the Nowhere Vault, the Rumors system and permanent three-sided Battlegrounds. High Seas of Tamriel, an experimental naval combat and underwater exploration event, ran from 30 September to 14 October. Season Two began on 21 October with the first two Solo Dungeons, reworked versions of Moon Hunter Keep and March of Sacrifices.
The road back to Skyrim
All of this is building toward Skyrim. Dynamic storms began appearing in ESO's Skyrim regions with Season Two, and ZeniMax plans the game's first Excursion Zone, a return to Skyrim with dynamic blizzards that affect gameplay, for early 2027.
Making Greymoor free right now is no accident: it puts western Skyrim in every player's hands just before the next Skyrim chapter arrives.
Why it matters
ESO's switch to Seasons was a bet that steady free content keeps players around better than one big paid box a year. The layoffs made that bet harder, and the delays show it. But the free Greymoor, Game Pass and Solo Dungeons all lower the barrier for new and returning players at a time when Western MMOs need every one of them.
What to watch: Update 52 and Jerall Pass in January, the Skyrim Excursion Zone in early 2027, and whether Crimson Veldt and the combat overhaul make it out in 2027 as promised.
WGC's take: If you own ESO and have not logged in for a while, November is a good month to return. Greymoor is free, Skyrim is in the spotlight, and the Seasons model means you are not paying for the next stop. For the wider picture of Western MMOs in 2026, see our report on Guild Wars 2's pause before Guild Wars 3.