The Elder Scrolls Online pulled from Australian retailer - report

The Elder Scrolls Online is disappearing from store shelves. Wuh-roh.

The Elder Scrolls Online is apparently no longer on sale at EB Games, Australia's best-known video games retail chain.

The game itself and all online subscription cards are to be sent back to Bethesda, according to Kotaku Australia's sources at EB Games.

We'd be happy to write this off as a weird retailer blip until we got further information, if it were not for the fact that Zenimax Online has been making certain changes - like removing the 60 day subscription package - that suggest the MMORPG might be making the (perhaps inevitable) transition to free-to-play in the near future.

Update: EB Games has hastened to assure MCV Pacific that the recall is perfectly normal and doesn't mean a thing.

"This is just part of a normal stock recall. Post-Christmas we ask stores to send back anything that they may have too much of in store. This time we included many titles, including The Evil Within, Destiny and The Elder Scrolls Online," a representative said.

At last estimate back in July 2014, TESO was believed to have about 700,000 subscribers. It had been expected to release on PS4 and Xbox One in April 2014 alongside the Mac and PC versions, but was delayed to June 2014 and then to late 2014. No new release window has been provided; Zenimax Online's last comment was that it was aiming for late 2014 but couldn't make promises.

We got five words into an email to Bethesda Australia before remembering it's on holiday break, so we'll just sit here gritting our teeth until the UK wakes up and asks some questions.