Bethesda's iOS game "The Elder Scrolls: Blades" has begun rolling out in early access this week, after facing numerous delays in 2018 (via TouchArcade). The game was first announced at E3 2018, and then showcased by Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard at Apple's "Gather Round" iPhone XS event in September 2018.
As of now, the game is in early access and Bethesda is sending out invites in waves. If you're interested, you can create a Bethesda account to sign up for early access on the company's website, and more information about the program can be found on the game's FAQ page.
Apple used the mobile game as a way to showcase the A12 Bionic chip on the newest generation of iPhone devices. During the event, Howard said that Blades is a massive, first person role-playing game that is full of quests for players to complete in an open world.
In the game, you play as a member of the Blades, a group of the Empire's top agents who are forced into exile, forcing you to return to your hometown in an effort to help rebuild it. The game's App Store page highlights features like dungeon questing, city customization, player-versus-player arena battles, character and gear editing, and more.
The Elder Scrolls: Blades is available to download from the iOS App Store for free [Direct Link]. As with most free-to-play games, there are in-app purchases of up to $99.99.
Top Rated Comments
-sigh-
I'm not opposed to gaming subscription. I have an XBox Game Pass which is well worth it considering I paid $100 for a year. $100 is the cost of a typical AAA title + dlc season pass. Worth it.
The service will live or die on the quality of the curation.
To get back to the topic of the thread... I’d love to see Blade added to Arcade next year.
But Apple will then be competing with Google Stadia and possible high end PC games on your phone or tablet, hmm interesting times.
And thanks for clearing it up, it wasn’t clear you hated IAPs and I utterly agree, hate them.
But Apple didn’t announce pricing, that could be an issue too for this service.
I do enjoy premium titles on iOS, but have frequently been burned by those as well. More often than not, premium titles are abandoned. Bugs are left unpatched and instead of fixing issues when an iOS patch breaks functionality, the games are often just pulled off of the store.
I am cautiously optimistic of Apple Arcade because it could offer what I am looking for out of mobile gaming; well supported premium games that don’t have IAP.
Remember that this will live along side the current App Store and will likely appeal to gamers who are otherwise not spending any money on IAP today. This could be a new and largely untapped revenue stream for Apple that if done well could increase overall store profits. I can almost guarantee that the average iOS user spends less per month today than this new service will charge.