Will crossplay be the last chance to save this game for console players?

moderatelyfatman

I think crossplay is the new "Year of Performance' where it is announced every year but nothing will get done.
However, even if were to come in tomorrow, it is a case of masking a problem rather than fixing it. The main problem is that the population across the board is down but even more so in the case of consoles.
The real solution is to get the players back.

beer781993

Major_Soulless wrote: »

beer781993 wrote: »

I am against the idea to have crossplay with PC.
There would be unfair advantages in PvP. Theres multithreading on PC and way less input delay than on consoles. Same in PVE highend raiding, you would simply be excluded for playing on console. Best example is Ps4, everyone playing it, will be automatically not accepted.

Although crossplay with playstation and xbox would be awesome, increase players and still be fair to everyone.

If crossplay did happen they'd have to give us access on consoles to more add ons that pc have.

Merging the PS and Xbox servers seems more logical though

It's not about addons, it's about higher Fps, lower input delay and more buttons on keyboards. You can't even increase the camera sensitivity high enough on controller or remap your buttons.
PC got huge advantages compared to console.
It's just not a good idea. You will be excluded from content because you get stomped by quicker hardware/better optimisation.

XSTRONG

PSEU, Over 43.000 users on Harvest map addon the first 1-2 weeks.

Thats easily 30.000 PS5 players in about 1.5 weeks. (No PS4 players)

Server is not as dead as some people say but some game activities are not so popular for the majority of Eso players.

But does the game need Crossplay? YES!!

licenturion

XSTRONG wrote: »

PSEU, Over 43.000 users on Harvest map addon the first 1-2 weeks.

Thats easily 30.000 PS5 players in about 1.5 weeks. (No PS4 players)

Server is not as dead as some people say but some game activities are not so popular for the majority of Eso players.

But does the game need Crossplay? YES!!

This is actually very interesting information. Thanks for sharing.

But yeah the only people complaining about population issues is usually PvP people who only/mostly play Cyro/Imperial/Battlegrounds.

The majority of players prefer the other content in the game; which doesn't mean the game is dead or on decline. Just that PvP is even less popular these days.

Gabriel_H

Major_Soulless wrote: »

Population number's on the server I use (PS-EU) have dropped a lot the last 18-24 months and it has had an impact on the game.

What's your source?

AlnilamE

How would cross-play even work? Will we have constant information transfers between 6 different databases so that people can log off from PC and login to XBox seamlessly? What happens with account names and character names that are the same across different platforms?

This is not a simple thing when the system wasn't designed for it.

Maitsukas

1. What to merge, the regions or platforms? If both EU & NA are merged, then depending on where the servers physically are located (Texas for NA, Germany for EU), most players are forced to deal with an increased latency (as if the OCE/SEA players don't have enough already). And are Sony and Microsoft willing to cooperate to make a platform merger possible (since MS basically refused to do that during the PS3/XB360 era)?

2. Shared character names on different accounts and servers. Who gets to keep the name, someone who had it longer or someone who manages to log in first, forcing the other player(s) to use a name change on their character(s)?

3. Shared guild names on different servers. There is no way to change the guild names without disbanding them.

4. Character cap for multi-platform players. Is doubling or tripling the limit a solution considering the many cuts (guild trader sale times, mail expiry times) they had to make to improve performance over the years?

5. Housing projects potentially getting erased if someone creates something in Grand Psijic Villa on one server, but completely different in the same house on another server.

My stance crossplay remains a hard NO ever since the PTS Planemeld happened and will not change.

redlink1979

Major_Soulless wrote: »

As we know crossplay will be coming to ESO. Maybe this year maybe next year who knows (...)

Good luck with that.
It's not confirmed. They say they're looking into underlying tech changes that would make it possible. It's way more likely to happen than before though since they're actually getting support from higher up.

https://youtu.be/ADaBPspkAL8?si=iAIFDS4yG5bniif_

Major_Soulless

licenturion wrote: »

XSTRONG wrote: »

PSEU, Over 43.000 users on Harvest map addon the first 1-2 weeks.

Thats easily 30.000 PS5 players in about 1.5 weeks. (No PS4 players)

Server is not as dead as some people say but some game activities are not so popular for the majority of Eso players.

But does the game need Crossplay? YES!!

This is actually very interesting information. Thanks for sharing.

But yeah the only people complaining about population issues is usually PvP people who only/mostly play Cyro/Imperial/Battlegrounds.

The majority of players prefer the other content in the game; which doesn't mean the game is dead or on decline. Just that PvP is even less popular these days.

Number's for doing trials etc are down though I've played the game on ps pretty much every day for 7 years I can see population numbers are down.

Mesite

I'm pretty sure they could cope with shared character names across the merged databases (and guild names) by adding ps, pc or Xb after the name, even if it's in brackets. You won't even notice. How do ther crossplay games like Diablo do it?

PCs aren't as easy (cheap) to buy as Xboxes. And ESO is on game pass so you'll be able to tell if/when Xbox is going to be closed down or merged as they'll take ESO off game pass.

Or maybe they'll add ESO to the PC version of game pass when the PC population noticeably shrinks.

Crossplay will be complicated and may not be high on the priority list if firms are cutting back on gaming costs.

Jaavaa

Please never (!!) merge EU and NA Servers. One of both get a ping of death, depends on where the Servers are.

spartaxoxo

I haven't noticed any issues with PSNA's population but if XBOX NA needs to join along, then I don't think it would cause much issues. I don't think they should allow cross play between PC and Console.

MISTFORMBZZZ

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I haven't noticed any issues with PSNA's population but if XBOX NA needs to join along, then I don't think it would cause much issues. I don't think they should allow cross play between PC and Console.

Crossplay betwen consoles only would be good.

MJallday

given that Microsoft are sacking dev's like they're going out of fashion, ive got more chance of morphing into Kim Kardashian than crossplay ever being developed.

MJallday

Major_Soulless wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

We don't know that crossplay will be coming to ESO. All we know is that ZOS are looking into the feasibility of it doing so.

My understanding from this forum is that PS EU is the only server that is struggling population-wise, so I don't think it's a console-wide problem but as I'm on PC EU and NA others may be better informed on the console situation.

Xbox apparently is very low on its population isn't it ?

Unless I was misinformed

seems busy enough to me.. never had an issue

Avalon

MJallday wrote: »

Major_Soulless wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

We don't know that crossplay will be coming to ESO. All we know is that ZOS are looking into the feasibility of it doing so.

My understanding from this forum is that PS EU is the only server that is struggling population-wise, so I don't think it's a console-wide problem but as I'm on PC EU and NA others may be better informed on the console situation.

Xbox apparently is very low on its population isn't it ?

Unless I was misinformed

seems busy enough to me.. never had an issue

Me either. I mean, sure, it's not as busy as it has been in the past, what with 30+ characters huddling around every major guild trader site, so many at the Undaunted that it's hard to even see the quest markers above the quest givers...

But, I still see 10-20 at the traders, and a good 5-15 at the Undaunted. The recent event? Problematic to find the daily giver. If I had to guess, at least 50 at that spot at almost all times. The Alik'r Dolmens? Most times at least 2 nearly full, if not full, groups running them. When U46 dropped? Had to go to the subclassing person like a blind man at an... well, insert Naked Gun reference.

We have a ton of players still. Those Add-On numbers are great, but remember... I don't think they are available on Xbox One, and a LOT of players don't use any of them. The guy leading my trials group is adamantly against them. So, seeing 43K on just one of them? Xbox probably has 60K players, maybe even 75K. I can show you what a game looks like when it is actually dying... *glances over at a specific 'Comic-Book-themed' MMO that REEEAALLLY needs to add crossplay!*: the main hub area used to be jam-packed wall-to-wall with players.

Now? Might be lucky if there's 10 people in the entire MASSIVE room. At peak time. But, when there's probably 10 different hub-type areas in ESO (not sure how many, might even be more), and they all have somewhere between 15 and 50 at all times of the day, more at peak times? Numbers might be down... but far from dying.

Crossplay would be AMAZING, though.

RedRokaz

Rungar wrote: »

They really should offer a package for players to migrate to pc. Not like an actual move but an incentive package like 2 million gold 500% exp bonus and unlock whatever expansions your account had access to if you want to start over there.

sadly its the consoles that are holding this game back quite a bit technically.

Are you joking? The package you mentioned is worth nothing.

Not a single player would be interested to start playing on PC if they got a deal like this.

Toanis

Avalon wrote: »

Crossplay would be AMAZING, though.

Well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mjz6j_CUzA

allochthons

PS/NA.
I'm in one guild that can't fill trials.
I'm in another guild where every single trial posted is filled in <10 seconds (I am not exaggerating. If your discord glitches, you don't get into the trial. The waiting lists for the DPS roll can hit 15 - 20 people)

My main trading guilds (in capital cities) sit at 470-490 members, and are setting up sister guilds.
Another guild just shut down.

Population perception is very dependent on when you play, and what guilds you are in.

If there were a "shut down console, move to PC with this package" I would move on from ESO. I was a system administrator / cyber-security expert for years. I will not put another M$ machine in my house. I play on console because I don't want to deal with patching, drivers, video cards, and everything else that comes with PCs.

(I might look into playing from a mac or linux, though.)

Tandor

Crossplay and server/platform transfers would just make any population issues even worse for those players who for perfectly legitimate reasons preferred to play on their existing server/platform which would then be even emptier.

zaria

DenverRalphy wrote: »

The population of PSNA is just fine. Thriving actually IMO.

I'm of the opinion that a Console to Console merger would be okay . But crossplay with PC would only benefit PC players.

And the whole notion that Consoles are what's holdinig ESO development back is completely backwards. With consoles developers have the advantage of knowing exactly what specs the user has and develop for it. PC on the otherhand has a smorgasbord of hardware specs, many of which are sub-optimal. I daresay that there are many PC players still running ESO on PC's older than the game itself (I've seen it). I'll even double down and say that consoles quite often run the game better than many PC's out there. Not every PC player has current gen gaming rigs.

Note that system requirements has increased over time. I ran ESO on an laptop who had issues with Oblivion obviously the original game back at launch on a Holiday. It looked and ran *** but I had it to feed horses and level crafting but did some quests.

Lydawobbles

I think console NA, console EU servers would be fantastic.

No ping, more population, easier to find friends to do things with.

I think PC and console should stay separate.

but as a GM of a small social/ trading guild that used to do everything, “active” population is certainly down. I can’t even fill trials anymore, no one comes to skill point runs/skyshard hunts, print farms or dailies runs.

Casual is maybe the same. People who log in, get their reward, do an endeavor then log off. But that’s not what we’re needing if we want our guilds and activities to survive lol

Console merge would be ideal, I think.

ArchMikem

Jaavaa wrote: »

Without Crossplay, ESO will die in the next 1-2 years on Console. Imo.

I don't see that at all. Every time I log in there's always people running around. Hubs like Riften, Mournhold, Vulkhel Guard etc always have crowds.

Cooperharley

Tandor wrote: »

Crossplay and server/platform transfers would just make any population issues even worse for those players who for perfectly legitimate reasons preferred to play on their existing server/platform which would then be even emptier.

I've been reading what you're saying and following until this... this ain't it and makes no sense. Crossplay would make signing up for groups, queuing and atmosphere much more populated.

I absolutely do agree that the game is not dying - there's lots of people playing, but the end game community is absolutely dying and is largely dead (end-game meaning high end PvE and most PvP players).

Ishtarknows

Major_Soulless wrote: »

Merging the NA and EU servers would logically make more sense than crossplay

Where would the servers be? They'd be on one side of the Atlantic so the other 50% of the players can't play competitively with the lag they'd experience. Yeah, no thanks. I've played on NA and the lag I experience is too much for trial trifectas. I'll stick to EU or leave the game. If I can't continue doing the content I want then there's no point

AllenaNightWood

i dont see any population issue in ps NA its always busy for the most part except around holidays and summer when ppl spend time with family

SilverBride

Mixing Consoles with PCs would be like like mixing water with oil. The social and economical norms are just way too different to blend well.

Hapexamendios

I really don't see a need for it myself. I play on PSNA and during prime time there's plenty of people playing.

RebornV3x

I don't want cross play with PC its a huge can of worms and only seems like a headache there's so many problems it would be a thread of its own and console will get screwed. PS to Xbox I'm ok with.

What I want is cross saves so I can play or import my Xbox account on to PC and vice-versa. Elite Dangerous did something like that after it dropped its support for consoles some years back you were able to import your console account to PC and keep playing it was free and even came with a copy of the game for PC.

I really hope ZOS looks into doing cross saves in the future.

SkaiFaith

Major_Soulless wrote: »

As we know crossplay will be coming to ESO. Maybe this year maybe next year who knows, but what im wondering is if people think this is the last roll of the dice when it comes to ESO having a future on consoles?

Population number's on the server I use (PS-EU) have dropped a lot the last 18-24 months and it has had an impact on the game.

Cyro is never full (except during mayhem) the gold economy has fallen through the floor (though the trader GM's still pay absurd amounts for traders in mournhold) and trial guilds are a fraction in number of what they used to be.

So if crossplay isn't a success will ESO on console simply fade away?

(This post was made on the assumption the pc numbers are healthy)

Here just to say even tough I want crossplay to happen, it would have very little meaning if it would not integrate cross-purchases and crossprogression.

I don't just want to be able to play from my Xbox with PC friends. I want all my purchases to be accessible for me if I decide to play from PC.

Sad to say but Xbox console is becoming a joke, so I expect sooner or later for it to die as a platform and just be merged with PC, in which case I want to be able as soon as possible to move freely from console to PC without losing anything.

Thanks.