Elder Scrolls Online Delays Update 31 And Waking Flame DLC On Consoles By A Week

ZeniMax Online Studios has delayed the release of its upcoming Update 31 and the Waking Flame DLC for Elder Scrolls Online on consoles by a week, now releasing on September 8th. The PC, Mac and Stadia releases remain unchanged, still hitting the platforms on August 23rd.

Citing a desire to alleviate stress on the team, as well as a need to ensure that the build is as stable as possible, ZeniMax made the announcement today on their website. The release date changing by a week should, according to ZOS, give them more time to "better focus on each individual release."

"To ensure a smooth and stable launch, we have made the decision to move back the release date of The Elder Scrolls Online: Waking Flame and Update 31 on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 to September 8. By separating our PC/Mac/Stadia and console releases by an additional week, we hope to publish a more stable build, potentially allowing us to include additional fixes before the new content goes live. This change will also help alleviate stress on some of our support teams, allowing us to better focus on each individual release. Note the Waking Flame and Update 31 release dates on PC/Mac/Stadia will remain August 23."

This isn't the first time in recent memory that ZeniMax has delayed the release on console in order to put some extra time between launch windows on other platforms. Earlier this summer, Elder Scrolls Online's Enhanced Edition for Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles was delayed an additional week to ensure that both the PC/console launch of the Chapter was a smooth as possible, but also ensure that the Enhanced Edition came out without adding more stress onto the team itself if any issues did arise.

Waking Flame has been on the PTS on PC for a little bit now, and ZeniMax recently deployed a round of fixes to make the build a bit more stable ahead of launch. Additionally, it was announced that ESO would be getting additional graphical improvements with Update 31, including HDR on consoles.