The Elder Scrolls Online Players Label New ESO Plus Exclusives "Greedy"

thegamer.com:

The Elder Scrolls Online has an optional subscription called ESO Plus that gives you access to every DLC (not including Chapters), an infinite crafting bag, and boons such as boosted XP. There are also monthly freebies, often furniture items like statues, but Zenimax has just introduced an exclusive paid item for ESO Plus members only.

"The Harpy's Bane Durzog mount will be available to ESO Plus Members in the Crown Store on all platforms for a limited time, from January 2 to February 1, 2024, at 10am EST," the announcement page reads. Sure enough, trying to buy it without an ESO Plus subscription gives you a pop-up telling you that you have to subscribe to access it.

The Durzog costs 1,000 Crowns and you can only buy packs of 750 or 1,500. As such, it would cost you either £11.98 or £10.99 to buy the mount. ESO Plus also gives you 1,650 crowns per month.

YouTuber Azuraaaaaaaaa booted up the game to test how the exclusive item worked if you hadn't subscribed, tweeting a video of the pop-up with the caption, "Can 100 percent confirm they have locked Crown Store purchases behind ESO Plus. My ESO Plus expired last week and this is the message you get when you try to buy it as a non-ESO-Plus member."

ESO's monetisation has come under fire over the past few years due to its inclusion of lootboxes (branded as Crown Crates), expensive items, and pricing that's often just over the currency bundles you can buy. ESO Plus sometimes gives discounts on Crown Store items, but taking that a step further with exclusives has proved too far for many.

"Inb4 you have to have ESO Plus to buy Crown Crates," Azuraaaaaaaaa said.

"I heard you liked spending money, so how about you spend some money to have the privilege to spend money on