The development team behind The Elder Scrolls Online has officially shuttered the game's Web Crown Store. The change, effective July 22, 2026, arrives in the wake of widespread layoffs across Xbox, which significantly reduced staff levels at both Bethesda and ZeniMax.
Quick Facts
- Feature Change: The Web Crown Store on elderscrollsonline.com has been disabled.
- Purchasing: Players can still purchase Crowns through the website, but item browsing and redemption must now be done in-game.
- Communication: The official Crown Store blog will shift to a simplified format, utilizing bulleted lists instead of high-resolution promotional screenshots.
Community manager Kevin Gbolie confirmed the changes via the game’s official forums, citing a need to manage developer bandwidth. As a result of the reduced staff, the team is no longer able to maintain the web-based storefront or the previous level of visual content for the monthly Crown Store updates.
Impact on Community Resources
The removal of high-resolution item screenshots will have a tangible effect on third-party community projects. Gbolie acknowledged that the team is aware of the symbiosis between official blog assets and community sites like the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, which relied on those images to document the game's evolving inventory.
While the team intends to continue providing update information, the capacity to produce the detailed, high-quality promotional images used in the past is no longer available. Gbolie noted that while the blog's new format is still being finalized, it will focus on providing a clear, text-based list of new items to ensure players stay informed about releases.
These operational adjustments follow a broader restructuring period for the studio, which recently included the cancellation of an unannounced PvP shooter project previously in development at MachineGames.