Five years after its last update, Bethesda's digital card game The Elder Scrolls: Legends has been removed from sale on Steam, and is set to go offline at the end of January.
We called The Elder Scrolls: Legends "a deep and potentially rewarding alternative to Hearthstone" when it launched in 2017, albeit one that needed a bit more juice in the art department, and a bigger playerbase. Despite numerous post-launch improvements that continued to impress, those player numbers never really materialized, and it was unable to seriously challenge Hearthstone's grip on the mainstream CCG crown.
In 2019, Bethesda halted development of the game "for the foreseeable future," which included cancelling the release of an expansion planned for that winter. Legends remained available and playable, though, in both online and singleplayer modes; monthly rewards and in-game events also continued to flow.
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That will all come to an end soon. The Elder Scrolls: Legends is no longer available on Steam, and an in-game message says the servers will be permanently shuttered on January 30, 2025.
"From now until January 30, 2025, all items in the store and entry into in-game events will be available for one gold each, so you can enjoy all the content Legends has to offer," the message states. "On that date, servers will be shut down and the game will be inaccessible. Thank you for playing and we hope you have enjoyed your time in Legends."
Another game gone, and unsurprisingly the reaction is one of disappointment. The Elder Scrolls: Legends player numbers on Steam weren't spectacular—just a few hundred concurrents at any given time over the past few years—but the game is also available on mobile, which would push that number up higher, although clearly not high enough to justify continued operation.
Some players are also upset about losing access to a game they've put real money into. Legends was free to play, but offered in-app purchases for committed players to throw their money at—all of which will be lost when the game goes offline.
"We were keeping the game running as needed in maintenance but that's been the extent of our role for some time," Jason Coleman, president of The Elder Scrolls: Legends developer Sparkypants Studios, told PC Gamer. "I don't really have any insight into the decision-making process. I'm sure lots of people, including those within ZeniMax, would like it to run forever.
"Regardless of the reasons, it's sad to see a game no longer available and I definitely feel for the players."
The issue of games going offline and leaving players in the lurch has garnered significant attention this year. Sparked by Ubisoft's decision to pull the plug on The Crew, a Stop Killing Games campaign sprung to life in April; several months later, the state of California enacted a law requiring retailers to warn consumers that their digital games are impermanent confections that can be lost when, for instance, servers go offline. In October, Steam added a new disclaimer to that effect, warning customers that they don't actually own any of the games they buy, but are simply paying for a license to use them.
