The Elder Scrolls Online is running a week-long free trial

Christmas is rapidly approaching and that means cold weather, unbearably busy shops and lots of spending money. Anything free, indoors and relaxing should be seized, upon which is why we’re drawing your attention to the week-long free trial currently taking place in Elder Scrolls Online.

From now until December 6, the game will be free to download and play on PC and PlayStation 4, with 500 crowns thrown in for new players to use in the in-game store.

If you’ve played a free trial for the game before but didn't pick up the full game afterwards, your character will still be there for you to play and any more progress you make will be carried over if you decide to purchase the full game.

10 million in Tamriel

Despite getting off to a somewhat shaky start, The Elder Scrolls Online has really come into its own after moving away from a subscription MMO model to a single purchase one. The change has benefited the game so much, in fact, that this free trial is actually to celebrate it reaching 10 million subscribers.

To access the free trial you can download it from Steam and the official Elder Scrolls Online website, though it’s worth pointing out that the download is 80GB so it’s not likely to be an instant access situation.

If you do decide you’d like to bring in 2018 in a Tamriel tavern, the game is currently discounted on Steam and the PlayStation Store until the end of the trial period, bringing the price down to a more reasonable $9.99 / £7.49. At the very least it might give you a high fantasy fix in the likely-to-be-long wait for The Elder Scrolls 6.