After nearly a year of fooling itself, The Elder Scrolls Online is now subscription free. Lapsed players can now log into their account, download 17gb worth of MMORPG and pick up where they left off, while new players can purchase a copy for $59.99 with no need to hand over payment details for a monthly sub. The Xbox…

Like most subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing games, The Elder Scrolls Online includes 30 day free game time with purchase, but in order to access that 30 free days, one first has to set up a subscription, and that's got some of the game's players in an uproar.

Putting an end to speculation that the massively multiplayer entry in Bethesda's award-winning role-playing franchise would be free-to-play, Zenimax Online's Matt Firor has confirmed The Elder Scrolls Online will follow a subscription-based business model.

The issue of Game Informer packed with info on the newly-announced Elder Scrolls MMO is already in some people's hands and, well, if you were hoping for a game that was basically Skyrim only with real people, you're in for one hell of a disappointment.