Just a few years ago, it would have been completely unremarkable for new massively multiplayer game to charge a monthly fee to players. But today, it counts as news when Bethesda confirms (via an interview with GameStar) that The Elder Scrolls Online will cost players $15 a month (€12.99/£8.99 in Europe) after a 30-day trial period.

These days developers of online games have been decamping in droves to the free-to-play model, giving away the basic game for free and charging for in-game items and perks. Practically the only major MMO that can still get away with charging a monthly fee is World of Warcraft, but even Blizzard has introduced a limited free-to-play starter pack for the game, and it might be looking to expand the "no money upfront" option in the future.

MMO publishers are making the free-to-play move for a simple reason: free-to-play online games tend to rake in a lot more revenue, overall, than games that have monthly fees as a barrier to entry. Allowing people to play for free also helps increase the base number of people playing in the world, which causes all sorts of knock-on network effects in a game based around playing with lots of other people.

But Bethesda apparently sees more negatives than positives in the free-to-play model. "We're building a game with the freedom to play—alone or with your friends—as much as you want," Matt Firor, general manager of Bethesda parent company Zenimax Online, told GameStar. "[It's] a game with meaningful and consistent content—one packed with hundreds of hours of gameplay that can be experienced right away and one that will be supported with premium customer support."

"The Elder Scrolls games are all about allowing the player to go where they want, be who they want, and do what they want," he continued. "We feel that putting pay gates between the player and content at any point in [the] game ruins that feeling of freedom, and just having one small monthly fee for 100 percent access to the game fits the IP and the game much better than a system where you have to pay for features and access as you play."

If any franchise has an established base of fanatical support large enough to support a monthly fee (on top of an initial purchase price for the game itself), it's The Elder Scrolls. Then again, I would have said the same thing about Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic a few years ago, and even that title ended up getting rid of subscriptions before too long.

The Elder Scrolls Online is slated for a 2014 release on PS4, Xbox One, Windows, and Mac.