Rich Lambert, former Elder Scrolls Online game director and current ZeniMax Online Studios studio director, has openly questioned why the MMORPG continues to “fly under the radar” of the broader gaming industry. In a PCGamesN interview published this week, Lambert admitted that ESO’s quiet success has long puzzled him, noting that the game is “either not taken seriously or dismissed” despite a thriving community and a decade of award-winning content drops.
Lambert attributes part of the low profile to Zenimax’s historically low-key communication style: “We don’t necessarily celebrate our successes as much as we maybe should.” He says that the studio has spent years “behind the scenes, just working really hard, doing things right,” and he believes a more vocal marketing push is finally on the way. The team now plans to change its communication approach starting with upcoming chapter and update reveals, hoping to give Tamriel the spotlight he feels it has earned.
Since its 2014 launch, ESO has maintained one of the genre’s most reliable update cadences—four major DLCs or chapters every year—but the predictable schedule rarely generates mainstream headlines. Lambert recounts media events where journalists asked him “when does this come out?” years after launch, reinforcing his view that the title is still treated like a new release by many outlets. With player concurrency quietly rivalling that of WoW, FF14, and GW2, the studio is preparing to trumpet milestones more loudly to ensure that the broader player base recognizes what long-time residents of Tamriel already know: ESO has become one of the healthiest virtual worlds on the market.
