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I don't have ESOTU yet, but I've been thinking about getting it sometime soon. Definitely getting the PC imperial Edition and then at least some of the DLC later on. First of course is to watch for a deal to buy it. I know I just missed the Steam 50% sale, but not sure if I wanna get it through Steam. I'm actually kinda glad I did miss it, because it gives me a chance to research & think about it. Anybody know if the ESO site ever puts the game (and crowns) on sale? I'm guessing not. Also, it looks like the "official" retailers also sell at retail price. I also saw in one of the forums about being careful of cd keys from other sources like on ebay. I know ebay is ok, but you can't always say the same for their sellers & products. I mean, $25 Buy it Now, for the full digital imperial edition key? I'm not thinkin' so and not taking a chance.

Anyway, I'm curious about other players' opinions on the pros & cons of getting the game through Steam. That can help me to decide if I wait for the next sale on Steam or pay retail on ESO when I'm ready to get it. For instance, I know I can add the ESO game to Steam as a non-Steam game, and use the overlay if I wanted, so that's not really a benefit for Steam. I'm also not concerned about tracking play time, and last I heard there were no Steam achievements yet. There's also no workshop yet. So I guess I'm more interested in the cons. It sounds a bit convoluted to purchase crowns through Steam. OTOH, Steam will have periodic sales on crowns, but ESO probably won't. That brings a question to mind. I do have a Steam account for Skyrim. If I did buy the game from ESO and added it as a non-Steam game, would I be able to buy crowns through Steam during their future sales?

Any thoughts are very appreciated.

Frank

PS: I knew the DB DLC is coming soon, and it sounds cool, because OB being my first ES game, Cyrodiil is a sentimental favorite. But when I saw the other night, the Online prerelease screenie of Kvatch? I almost dropped what I was doing to buy the game right then & there. Kvatch Rebuilt is by far my favorite mod on any of the ES games so I guess the modders were just a tad prophetic when they put the city back together. We'll see how close they came to Beth's vision of the living city (or is it the other way around <g>).

The game and crowns definitely go on sale on the ESO site. There was a crown sale back in the earlier part of the month, just in time for the PC TG release (the 7th to the 14th). I don't think crown sales are all that frequent, but they do happen.

Unfortunately, I can't actually answer any of your questions about the Steam version. I run the non-Steam version since I had to buy a physical copy of the game to get around my small monthly data cap. I've launched the game with Steam a few times, but that's the extent of my experience. Personally, the only possible benefit I see of the Steam version is being able to access the extra Steam features (chatting with friends, streaming, or whatever else they provide nowadays), and that can be done, as you said, by adding the game as a non-Steam game.

Achievements on Steam wouldn't really be that important anyway, since the game itself has a ton of achievements built in. Sure, nobody'll see them unless you share a specific one in chat, or use a site like eso-database, but they're there.
And as far as the Workshop goes, it's not really needed, since there's esoui, which has Minion to help install/manage adddons.

So... Basically, I see no benefit to buying the game on Steam. Unless there's a sale, but I don't know how often ESO goes on sale on Steam. The last one that I could see (by scrolling through the Facebook page) was on February 5th, and the game was also on sale on the official ESO site, not just Steam.

There is actually another sale going on until the 26th, but it's only for the standard edition, and only at your "local retailer," as they put it. It isn't on sale on the site, but it is on sale at a place like Amazon.

The wiki has an article about the Steam version which outlines the difference.

I can't speak to the pros/cons of Steam, but there are reputable resellers out there. I know the ESO subreddit recommends DLGamer, and often advertises sales there. I guess they have it on sale for $19 right now, but that's probably not the Imperial edition.

As Mauin said, you just missed the big crown sale, which ended last week.

Be aware Imperial edition won't give you the Any Race/Any Faction that came with the Explorer's Pack originally, so if that's what you're hoping to get, you'll probably have to buy it separately with crowns. (You probably know this; just reiterating this because I've seen a lot of people make this mistake elsewhere).

Oh, and if you're on the NA megaserver, do join us in the UESP guild

Okay, so, upon reading the wiki page, I'd definitely go for the non-Steam version. Being able to purchase each crown pack once every two weeks seems like a major downside to me (even though I might buy one 5500 crown pack every month or two). It might not be as big of a deal if you can still use the ESO store to buy crowns, but if not, it's a bit of a problem if you happen to have your eyes on a lot of crown store items. The DLC alone will cost 9500 crowns if you aren't subscribed and don't buy the collectors edition (currently only available for Thieves Guild).

And, yeah, the Imperial Edition won't give you access to the Explorer's Pack/Adventurers Pack. If you want that, you will have to buy it with crowns. I don't think they give out the code for it anymore considering you can't preorder the game anymore (which is how I got it). It costs 1900 crowns at the moment.

Thanks to all for your very good info. That helps a lot. So I guess I have one last question. If I do get the game from a non-Steam source, whether from the elderscrollsonline.com site or elsewhere, and then add it to Steam as a non-Steam game, can I still buy crowns from Steam when they're on sale at Steam, or do I need to do it from the ESO site only? If not, then as long as the ESO site does have crown sales as well on occasion, then I think that's the last thing that I needed to know in order to decide on a non-Steam purchase.

I lied, one more last question - I just noticed the reference from captainecchi about the imperial edition not giving the any race/any faction without the Explorers Pack...I was expecting it from the info that I'd mis-read so far <g>...however, as I'm looking at it closer, I think I understand it now. Please verify that the following is correct - Imperial Edition permits playing Imperial in any faction, while Explorers Pack permits any of the other races in any faction. I guess it's good I was prolly tentatively planning on playing Imperial anyway <g>...

As far as the store is concerned, I'll prolly have plenty of time from getting the base imperial edition game, and getting accustomed to not only the game but also group gaming in general as well, before needing crowns, as I'm interested in getting DLC, and really not much other from the store...

Thanks again

Frank

PS: I am planning on joining one or more guilds, and of course UESP is at the top of the list

Uh, waitaminit, do the math here with me...regular ESOTU version from DLGAMER at $19...then get 5500 pack even at regular price at $40...now I have the regular version, and 6000 crowns (5500 + 500 for new account ) for $59...

Then I get the imperial edition upgrade for 2100 crowns.

Now, I have ESOTU imperial edition, and still have 3900 crowns left, for less than the retail price of the regular version of the game

am I missing something? if not, that's hands-down the way to go...

Frank

This is correct.

Regarding your math: sounds right to me, but my math skills are not to be trusted

thanks again...now just gotta check my piggy bank, and if I'm good....may see you guys out in tamriel soon... if I gotta wait for my next paycheck, it'll just be a matter of watching for the next sale wherever, because DLGamer's current sale will end before my next check arrives...w

Frank

Thanks to all, because of DLGAMER, I ended up going back to the list of official retailers, and I found the winner - Green Man Gaming, or at least I stopped looking after that. They have a big Bethesda spring sale going on, for up to 80%. Didn't see an expiration, but looked like most of Beth's catalog.

Frank

I was just going to mention that to you, so I'm glad you found it Hope to see you in game soon!

Yeah, captainecchi...still d/l'ing...sheesh <g>...I don't have the fastest DSL, but I still get 5mbps on my service & the download stream has been steady at 560 kb/s since about 1:30am ET...I figure i'll be done between 10p and midnite tonite...weird thing is that based on the MB's, it's over 2/3 downloaded, but the percentage is still at 15%...I guess the progress bar is for the complete install, not just the download....

So I've just been napping, watching some tv & scoping some sites for some insight on setting up my character as well. I've decided on DC, Nightblade, Imperial race, at least for my first char...I've seen that apparently Khajiit is considered the best match with Nightblade but that the Imperial is a good fit too...

I saw that there's a sale right now for crowns, but it looks like it's console-specific. Well, that's ok. Since I didn't need to get crowns for the Imperial Edition upgrade, I can just wait for the next pc-specific crowns sale, to start getting the DLC's...the ones that interest me most are Thieves Guild, IC and the upcoming DB. Wrothgar doesn't grab me that much because I'd never been that much of an Orc fan, but I've seen good things about it so I'll prolly get it eventually too, for completionist sake <g>

Frank