You can no longer subscribe to the Elder Scrolls Online for longer than 90 days, as Bethesda has - without mention - removed the six-month option from its site.

As noticed by... well, those who play the game, the only subscription selections available on the MMO are now either 30 or 90-day options.

On the French forums this was all explained away by a moderator as being a simple case of people preferring the shorter subs. But that's not a theory that's holding water with a vocal section of the community.

See, other games have removed longer subscription options just before making the leap to free-to-play. It makes sense, as otherwise you're going to have a lot of long-term subscribers annoyed by a big change.

With the Elder Scrolls Online not exactly setting the world of MMOs alight, it might seem a sensible course of action to remove the paywall and encourage any and all to get involved.

Would losing the subscription model help the good-but-not-great MMO? Who knows. But it's certainly not out of the question for a big release to entirely change its business model shortly after launching.

And it works out okay, sometimes.

Anyway, in lieu of actual information from Bethesda we can just look forward to January's release of update 6, with its Champion and Justice Systems.

[via Joystiq]