It did not take long for contents of the Game Informer's The Elder Scrolls Online June article, to get leaked. Looks like someone got a hold of the article and released a bunch of screenshots as well as a few rumored gameplay details.

Here are some of the details that were released:

• Releasing 2013 for PC/Mac
• Developed by ZeniMax Online Studios
• 250 Person Team Started development in 2007
• The game is fully voice acted
• Third person perspective
• The game uses a hotbar to activate skills like other traditional MMOs
• Visually it looks like other Hero Engine MMOs like SWTOR
• The general art style is kind of like RIFT or Everquest 2
• You can't be a werewolf or vampire
• Crafting, alchemy, and soul stones will exist in an unrevealed form
• Tons of towns ranging from Imperial City, Windhelm, Daggerfall, Sentinel, Mournhold, Ebonheart, Elden Root, Shornhelm, Evermore, Riften, and a lot more
• There will be mounts, but no flying mounts
• There are three player factions
• There will be no player housing
• There will be no NPC romances or marriage
• Fast travel exists in the game in the form of wayshrines, which are also your ressurection point, and you can teleport from one wayshrine to any other wayshrine you have already visited
• The game world is very large relative to Skyrim
• The game is set 1000 years in the past
• Hitting the level cap takes about 120 hours
• Three faction PvP where you fight to take over keeps and use trebuchets and other siege weapons to help do it. 100 v 100 battles
• There is also balanced PvP for people who prefer eSports
• Each faction has their own leveling content
• The combat model will not be real time due to latency
• The combat is based around a stamina bar which you can use to sprint, block, interrupt, and break incapacitating effects
• Blocking is the primary focus of these abilities, and can do things like stopping the secondary effects of attacks such as an ice spell slowing you
• Healing is still a big part of the game
• There is no aggro mechanic in the game
• NPCs will try to work together and use player like behavior when fighting you, so instead of enemies in a dungeon sitting around and waiting to be pulled, you will be attacked by the entire room and they will try to react to how you are playing

There are also scans of the art and screens in the article that have been posted online

Source: ShackNews.com

Source: Neogaf.com

Following yesterday's long-awaited reveal of The Elder Scrolls Online, ZeniMax Online Studios has released the game's announcement trailer.

Source: ElderScrollsOnline.com

GameBreaker.tv This Week In MMO discusses the Elder Scrolls MMO as well as TERA post release. We learn that that the new Elder Scrolls MMO, will occur 1000 years prior to Skyrim, it will have 3 factions fighting over control of the Empire, with PvP and questing dynamic events. There was also an open discussion about the combat style. At this point we are not sure if Elder Scrolls MMO will offer action style combat similar to Skyrim or if it will offer a traditional skill quick bar.

Game Informer has released information that an Elder Scrolls MMO is in the works. All we know so far is that the new Elder Scrolls title will feature three-faction PvP and the development team is headed up by Matt Firor, known primarily for his work on Dark Age of Camelot. The Elder Scrolls Online is scheduled to come out in 2013 for both PC and Macintosh. The official announcement will be made in the June issue of Game Informer.

Source: GameInformer.com

For the entire month of May, rotating each week, the Feature Episode Series are once again offering their special, unique rewards for completion!

May 3 - May 9: Spectres (The Devidians)

• Special Reward: Ophidian Cane
• Minimum level required to accept missions: 11 (Fed) 25 (KDF)
• How to Play: Use your Mission Journal (Press J or click the Hail button next to your minimap) to hail and transwarp to the different episodes; for Federation Officers, use the Klingon War tab, and for Klingon Officers, use the Federation War tab.
• Episodes in this series: Skirmish, Spin the Wheel, What Lies Beneath, Everything Old is New, and Night of the Comet

May 10 - May 16: Cloaked Intentions (The Romulans and Remans)

• Special Reward: Reman Bridge Officer
• Minimum level required to accept missions: 34 (Fed) 36 (KDF)
• How to Play: Use your Mission Journal (Press J or click the Hail button next to your minimap) to hail and transwarp to the different episodes; for Federation and Klingon Officers, use the Romulan Mystery tab.
• Episodes in this series: The Vault, Mine Enemy, Frozen, Coliseum, Cutting the Cord, and Darkness Before the Dawn

May 17 - May 23: The 2800 (The Dominion)

• Special Reward: Shard of Possibilities
• Minimum level required to accept missions: 45 (Fed) 41 (KDF)
• How to Play: Use your Mission Journal (Press J or click the Hail button next to your minimap) to hail and transwarp to the different episodes; for Federation Officers, use the Cardassian Struggle tab and for Klingon Officers, use the Dominion Domination tab.
• Episodes in this series: Second Wave, Of Bajor, Operation Gamma, Facility 4028, and Boldly They Rode

May 24 - May 30: Cold War (The Breen)

• Special Reward: Breen Bridge Officer
• Minimum level required to accept missions: 48 (Fed) 46 (KDF)
• How to Play: Use your Mission Journal (Press J or click the Hail button next to your minimap) to hail and transwarp to the different episodes; for Federation and Klingon Officers, use the Breen Invasion tab.
• Episodes in this series: Cold Call, Out in the Cold, Cold Comfort, Cold Case and Cold Storage

GameBreaker.tv The Republic covers new SWTOR Community Q&A where Game Designer Daniel Erickson spoke of new species coming to the game by the end of the year.

In an interview with RockPaperShotgun.com Daniel Erickson speaks about recent increase in player activity following update 1.2 and the Rakghoul Outbreak world event. We also learn that following the next update focusing on must-have quality of life features, we will see allot new PvE and PvP content. Here are some of the more interesting quotes from the interview

“Although the Internet loves to pronounce the doom of all things, what we’re seeing is a huge increase in activity with [update] 1.2 as people return to see all of the new content,” said Erickson. “The community has generally been excited about the direction the game is going as we finish up our last must-have quality of life features (group finder, etc) and can start concentrating full-time on creative things like the world events.”

“There were two big lessons coming out of not just launch but beta testing that impacted development direction,” noted Erickson. “The first was that although we had not originally planned the game to be heavily PVP-focused, the ease of getting in and playing the Warzones combined with their fun design gave us the highest PvP participation of any modern triple-A MMO. At that point we turned a huge amount of our resources to PVP development, but we’re still playing a bit of catch-up, and that is understandably frustrating to our most advanced PVP users.”

Source: RockPaperShotgun.com

May 1 has arrived and after months of controversy and mixed Beta reviews TERA has officially launched! Its not unusual for freshly launched games to experience some issues and TERA is no exception. Some players are encountering issues that are preventing them from enjoying the game. En Masse is "actively working to resolve them."

Meanwhile En Masse has released this new TERA Launch Trailer. One thing I have to say is they sure know how to make good trailers.

Blizzard released a new Diablo III TV commercial.

This weekend I was lucky enough to get into the Calgary Comic Book Expo (Seriously they were sold out early morning both days). Although Calgary’s expo does not compare to something like Comicon, it is one of the largest expos in Canada and we are lucky enough to attract a good amount of celebrities. This year particular we got the full cast of Star Trek The Next Generation (Even Q) as well as Stan Lee. I want to share with you a short video I shot of Stan Lee speaking with Patrick Stewart during an autograph session. There was an instant sea of cell phone cameras as we all got our geek on!