Why cant I transfer my characters from PS4 to PC

Dylanlucas

Hi Zenimax,

Why isnt it possible to transfers an account from Playstation or Xbox to PC.

I bought an awesome PC last week but dont want to start all over again.

Will you guys put an option like that in place in the future or is it no other choice than to not play or start over......

Nestor

Account transfers between platforms is not possible for a number of reasons.

Dylanlucas

They were when Playstation was just released.

But if you have several reasons can you name them?

danno8

Both Sony and Microsoft most likely have clauses in there contracts that will not allow account transfers to other platforms.

It is an incentive to keep you on their respective platforms you see, because as you stated no one wants to have to start all over again.

belial5221_ESO

It's also easier to copy to a clean database ,than trying to integrate and patch/write to a huge database of saves,that could potentially delete everyone's progress.

Galen

IIRC, the initial one-time transfers to consoles were possible only due to empty databases, at least according to ZOS. Transfers to already populated databases are a no-go for them.

(I really really regret not being able to do that transfer and thus all my beta and loyalty rewards are solely on my (no longer used) PC account... I did not have an XB1 back then nor could I get one at that time.)

starkerealm

danno8 wrote: »

Both Sony and Microsoft most likely have clauses in there contracts that will not allow account transfers to other platforms.

It is an incentive to keep you on their respective platforms you see, because as you stated no one wants to have to start all over again.

This is speculation, but it's quite possible that it's something like this.

It's also likely that account records cannot be selectively copied to existing databases. Again, this is speculation, but the fact that we don't have the option of transferring characters between EU and NA servers on the existing platforms.

Nestor

Database being empty at platform launch is the big one. And, quite franky the only reason it was possible at one time. I stress the one time.

Cannot copy just one player record, it has to be the whole database table. This means anyone who has an account on both platforms will get it overwritten. No, the database is not set up for individual record movements.

The possibilty of exploits is huge, for example, you can be loaned millions of gold just prior to transfer and then pay it back on the original platform. You would have tons of gold on the new platform.

Any guilds you own would be borked as the player accounts supporting those guilds may not exist on the new platform.

Finding a time slot where every platform is on par with patches is another reason even if it was possible to do. There might be delays of weeks waiting for things to line up. What are you going to do, wait an intederminant amount of time.

Besides, with Addons, the PC version is like a whole new game.

xxthir13enxx

Yup
What Nestor said

If’s they ever end being willing to look into it…the Toons transferred would be stripped down to just their bare stats
No gear… No Achievements….No quests completed…
Hell not even any Skyshards or Skill progression…

trackdemon5512

ZOS has stated that they could develop a tool to theoretically transfer accounts. HOWEVER the vast number of issues that can possibly arise that can completely ruin accounts is a serious concern. Furthermore, the costs of developing such a tool likely cannot be compensated by the very few number of accounts that would actually want to transfer and do so on a one time basis.

TLDR: It’s not cost effective in any way to make it possible to transfer accounts. Not for you and certainly not for the company.

Sylvermynx

Nestor wrote: »

The possibilty of exploits is huge, for example, you can be loaned millions of gold just prior to transfer and then pay it back on the original platform. You would have tons of gold on the new platform.

Well, this one at least there would be a workaround. For instance, in WoW gold available to be transferred was limited by character level - only a max level character could transfer the full amount of gold in her bank. At least that's how it was into 2013 when I quit playing WoW.

The rest of your points are good and logical. I don't know about true, because ZOS doesn't ever say much.

[Edited for borking quote block]

xxthir13enxx

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

The possibilty of exploits is huge, for example, you can be loaned millions of gold just prior to transfer and then pay it back on the original platform. You would have tons of gold on the new platform.

Well, this one at least there would be a workaround. For instance, in WoW gold available to be transferred was limited by character level - only a max level character could transfer the full amount of gold in her bank. At least that's how it was into 2013 when I quit playing WoW.

The rest of your points are good and logical. I don't know about true, because ZOS doesn't ever say much.

[Edited for borking quote block]

Heh Sylv…if they limited gold.. the players would just horde Mats gear etc etc to sell
It was all done first time around and ZoS won’t make same mistakes again

Sylvermynx

xxthir13enxx wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

The possibilty of exploits is huge, for example, you can be loaned millions of gold just prior to transfer and then pay it back on the original platform. You would have tons of gold on the new platform.

Well, this one at least there would be a workaround. For instance, in WoW gold available to be transferred was limited by character level - only a max level character could transfer the full amount of gold in her bank. At least that's how it was into 2013 when I quit playing WoW.

The rest of your points are good and logical. I don't know about true, because ZOS doesn't ever say much.

[Edited for borking quote block]

Heh Sylv…if they limited gold.. the players would just horde Mats gear etc etc to sell
It was all done first time around and ZoS won’t make same mistakes again

Yeah, you're probably right. I don't remember anyone worrying much about that in WoW - but that was a long time ago now for me - I can't think that I took gobs of anything with me other than gold. Then again, I didn't pay to transfer anything but max level characters.

starkerealm

Sylvermynx wrote: »

xxthir13enxx wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

The possibilty of exploits is huge, for example, you can be loaned millions of gold just prior to transfer and then pay it back on the original platform. You would have tons of gold on the new platform.

Well, this one at least there would be a workaround. For instance, in WoW gold available to be transferred was limited by character level - only a max level character could transfer the full amount of gold in her bank. At least that's how it was into 2013 when I quit playing WoW.

The rest of your points are good and logical. I don't know about true, because ZOS doesn't ever say much.

[Edited for borking quote block]

Heh Sylv…if they limited gold.. the players would just horde Mats gear etc etc to sell
It was all done first time around and ZoS won’t make same mistakes again

Yeah, you're probably right. I don't remember anyone worrying much about that in WoW - but that was a long time ago now for me - I can't think that I took gobs of anything with me other than gold. Then again, I didn't pay to transfer anything but max level characters.

Yeah, something that very specifically did happen was, some of the players who transferred their accounts borrowed millions from guildies and friends, which they returned after the account was copied. AFIAK, it permanently warped the XBox economies, and may have seriously distorted the PS4 economies for years.

So, yeah, that's not just a legitimate fear, it happened.

Malpheus_Prime

It's worth the grind. Do it without transferring...

LadyLethalla

I moved 2 months ago from PS to PC. Yes, I miss the houses, mounts, pets, motifs, etc etc I had on PS, but I have to admit it's almost outweighed by reexperiencing all the content again from scratch.
I'd have definitely considered a transfer option were it available, but I would like to play with my PS friends every now and then.

starkerealm

LadyLethalla wrote: »

I moved 2 months ago from PS to PC. Yes, I miss the houses, mounts, pets, motifs, etc etc I had on PS, but I have to admit it's almost outweighed by reexperiencing all the content again from scratch.
I'd have definitely considered a transfer option were it available, but I would like to play with my PS friends every now and then.

Lure them over. We have cookies, and fermented bugs... actually, on second thought, don't tell them about the Dubious Camoran Throne stockpiles, they might not have realized what they were drinking.

honglatongla

Sure it is possible. They just have to implement the system they use for PTS character copies, for example, in a way that maybe won't break anything. But probably it's mostly just an oversight, like many such things, from the start of the development and not an easy thing to do now just because they didn't think about it.

TempPlayer

If you think Molag Bal will allow you to slip always to a platform with add-ons, thus making your life easier, you have another thing coming.

starkerealm

honglatongla wrote: »

Sure it is possible. They just have to implement the system they use for PTS character copies, for example, in a way that maybe won't break anything.

The PTS copy wipes all other data off the PTS.

Same basic thing with the original transfers. They can transfer character data to a new user database, but they cannot splice an account into an existing database.

JTD

It can be done. ZOS just chooses not to invest or develop in this area. This might be because of costs / spending analysis or difficulty creating such a service. When a developer says 'they can't' it means 'they won't.

+ ESO players are hooked enough that people will have full accounts where they spend money in all 3 platforms. Why as a business would you ever disturb that income?

Olauron

This is a minefield no developer would want to cross. There would be a huge number of problems just from the DB logic, among them are

• transferred account name and transferred character name conflicts with the same names on the new server
• other account names and character names conflicts, including mail sent and received name problems (such names don't exist or belong to other players, you get UI errors, logic errors and functionality (return to sender) errors); item creator name problems (such names don't exist or belong to other players, you get UI errors, logic errors and functionality (writs) errors)
• the same as above for transferred name on the abandoned server if it is transfer, not a copy
• all logs are now broken (was this item looted from a chest in Glenumbra? not anymore, there was no such chest and there is no such Glenumbra)
• all generated IDs for everything connected to the account or character are no longer correct, including item IDs, achievement record IDs, etc (these IDs being primary and secondary keys makes problem even worse)
• collection transfer problem (do mounts, costumes, houses, etc. are transferred too?), including such things as character slots and outfit slots (it they are not transferred, but their contents are transferred, you get broken links)
• any character may stuck in the unavailable location (DLC zone that is not bought, house that is not owned)

redlink1979

Dylanlucas wrote: »

(...) I bought an awesome PC last week but dont want to start all over again. (...)

It's only really annoying if you have a large amount of crowns in your account or if you already spent a large amount of crowns on specific items you really wanted to own, everything else is just manageable. In my personal experience, it's way faster/easier to level up on PC.

Tandor

honglatongla wrote: »

Sure it is possible. They just have to implement the system they use for PTS character copies, for example, in a way that maybe won't break anything. But probably it's mostly just an oversight, like many such things, from the start of the development and not an easy thing to do now just because they didn't think about it.

You might have a valid point about PTS copying if they were able to copy both NA and EU characters together, but they can't. As I understand it, they wipe the PTS completely and then copy the entire character database from say NA to PTS for a few weeks before wiping it again and copying the entire character database from EU.

Danikat

In theory it can be done, certainly other games do it. But from the little I know about databases I suspect saying ESO can do it because another MMO does is like saying all computers must be able to run the game with the same settings because they're all computers. There's a lot of variation between databases.

Even among games which offer it there's a lot of variation: some you have to transfer your entire account and everything on it together, others only move 1 character at a time. Some will force you to rename your characters if the name is already in use, or have complicated rules about who gets to keep the name, others don't (but then require names to be unique across the whole game to avoid that problem). And so on.

From what ZOS have told us it is not currently possible with their databases and the tools available to them. As far as I know they've never made the details of how the game runs behind the scenes public so there's no reasonable way for us to dispute that because we don't know enough about how their databases work. But even if one of us could figure it out we're in no position to put the system in place.

I'm sure they know we want it, because it comes up often enough (along with requests for cross-play which I suspect are for similar reasons). If they could do it I'm sure they would, especially as it would definitely be a paid service.

Sylvermynx wrote: »

xxthir13enxx wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

The possibilty of exploits is huge, for example, you can be loaned millions of gold just prior to transfer and then pay it back on the original platform. You would have tons of gold on the new platform.

Well, this one at least there would be a workaround. For instance, in WoW gold available to be transferred was limited by character level - only a max level character could transfer the full amount of gold in her bank. At least that's how it was into 2013 when I quit playing WoW.

The rest of your points are good and logical. I don't know about true, because ZOS doesn't ever say much.

[Edited for borking quote block]

Heh Sylv…if they limited gold.. the players would just horde Mats gear etc etc to sell
It was all done first time around and ZoS won’t make same mistakes again

Yeah, you're probably right. I don't remember anyone worrying much about that in WoW - but that was a long time ago now for me - I can't think that I took gobs of anything with me other than gold. Then again, I didn't pay to transfer anything but max level characters.

I've never played WoW but I suspect the reason it's not an issue there is because it's a genuine transfer - whatever you move to the new server is wiped from the old one. Whereas what ZOS did was copy accounts to the new (and at that point empty) console databases whilst keeping the originals on PC so everything on those accounts was duplicated.

Guilds loaned thousands or millions of gold to members who were transfering because all they had to do was hold it on their account until they had been copied, then they could give it back - so no one lost anything and their members got to start on PS4 or Xbox with a vast supply of gold. If the gold had been removed from the PC server I doubt they'd have been willing to do that.

AlnilamE

Question for console players:

Do you have an ESO username that is independent from your GamerTag on the platform?

Hurbster

Doesn't FF14 let you do this just by buying the appropriate licence from the Mogstation?

DaiKahn

I just watched a Warframe stream (Tennocon 2021) where the Devs revealed crossplay [alpha/beta] between Switch, Mobile, PC, Playstation, and XBox where you can just sign in to each one with your account so hey, it seems something similar should be possible

Dylanlucas

Hurbster wrote: »

Doesn't FF14 let you do this just by buying the appropriate licence from the Mogstation?

Yes it does.

I'm willing to buy the full game and even pay for a transfer, but iI'm not buying anything unless its possible, like i said im not starting over again.

danno8

Dylanlucas wrote: »

Hurbster wrote: »

Doesn't FF14 let you do this just by buying the appropriate licence from the Mogstation?

Yes it does.

I'm willing to buy the full game and even pay for a transfer, but iI'm not buying anything unless its possible, like i said im not starting over again.

For FF14 though they use the old way of isolated server shards which definitely creates population issues like dead servers and overloaded servers.

Having robust transfer system in place is almost a necessity for that kind of server setup. ZoS "mega-server" approach means those problems aren't problems over here.

Dylanlucas

danno8 wrote: »

Dylanlucas wrote: »

Hurbster wrote: »

Doesn't FF14 let you do this just by buying the appropriate licence from the Mogstation?

Yes it does.

I'm willing to buy the full game and even pay for a transfer, but iI'm not buying anything unless its possible, like i said im not starting over again.

For FF14 though they use the old way of isolated server shards which definitely creates population issues like dead servers and overloaded servers.

Having robust transfer system in place is almost a necessity for that kind of server setup. ZoS "mega-server" approach means those problems aren't problems over here.

In FF14 you can visit other servers within the shard. The mathcmaking is cross server.

Like I said, I think this is a service alot of console players would pay some money for........free money Zenimax