Bethesda Community Manager, Christian Van Hoose, announced in a post to the game’s subreddit on December 6th that all development on The Elder Scrolls: Legends has ceased for “the foreseeable future”. While the free-to-play deck-builder remains available on Steam and mobile platforms, the news all but seals the fate of the unreleased console versions.
It doesn’t paint a very confident picture for the future of the existing game either, although an Asia-specific mobile release, developed in conjunction with Gaea Mobile, may “inform our decisions on […] development”. Van Hoose’s post follows:
We would like to provide an update on Legends in regard to new content. Our previous roadmap indicated we would be releasing one more set this year. We decided to put any new content development or releases on hold for the foreseeable future. This decision will not in any way affect the release and development of GAEA’s Asia-specific version of Legends, which is operated separately, but will inform our decisions on content and feature development going forward.
Until then, you can still download and play Legends on all existing platforms and compete online as well as in the single-player modes. We will also continue to support the game with monthly reward cards and regular in-game events. New expansions and other future content, however, are no longer under active development. We will continue to provide ongoing maintenance support.
To thank you all for supporting Legends these past few years, and for continuing to play with us, we are giving away The Tamriel Collection – an assortment of new, three-attribute cards and more – to all players for free upon their next login. We are immensely grateful to work on The Elder Scrolls: Legends, to have you as a community, and we sincerely appreciate the love and support you’ve given us.
In response to fan concerns, Van Hoose confirmed that the decision was not based on card designs or the relationship between developer Sparkypants (who took over from Dire Wolf Digital in 2018), but gave no clearer explanation. Another reply confirmed that playerbases for the Western and Asian versions would not be merged, nor would the Asian version replace the original.
Given that the game’s player counts on Steam have been steadily dwindling despite the past few years of content, it’s not hard to see one possible reason for the decision. The game is now on the Watch List but without a confirmed date to add to the calendar, we’ll just have to keep an eye out for the inevitable bad news.