Elder Scrolls Online gameplay leaks

New gameplay video footage from The Elder Scrolls Online has leaked, showing off the first 20 minutes of Bethesda's upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

The video clip (which has now been removed) showed off character creation, nine races, and three classes (dragonknight, templar, and sorcerer). The clip also revealed the game's user interface, skill trees, lower-level quests, and combat through first- and third-person perspectives.

The Elder Scrolls Online entered closed beta at the end of March. Players interested in testing out the game can sign up for future testing periods that will ramp up in size and scope as launch approaches.

The Elder Scrolls Online will cover the entire continent of Tamriel, including the lands featured in previous Elder Scrolls games like Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and Morrowind. The game will be set 1,000 years before the events of 2011's Skyrim and will put players into the world on the brink of demonic assimilation at the hands of the daedric prince Molag Bal.

The game is due out in 2013. Its pricing model has not been announced, though the founder of game consultancy firm Gamesbrief, Nicholas Lovell, believes The Elder Scrolls Online will launch with a paid subscription but will eventually become free-to-play. For more, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.