C'mon how is there still no way of sharing accounts between platforms?

GawdSB · August 2021

I've played this game a lot in the past, not so much recently, but I wanted to get back into it. Problem is that I last played on Xbox and I now game on PC. While games like Destiny 2 have a system of choosing global characters for all platforms and the transition was easy, ESO has nothing of the sort. Has this been something even thought of as a feature at any point in time? I even tried to start over but I had way too many characters with the best gear I needed to go through all that again.

kargen27 · August 2021

Simple answer is the game wasn't designed with that in mind and to try it now could cause catastrophic problems.

redspecter23 · August 2021

I've heard that one of the main issues is that the platform owners aren't all on board. They stand to lose money if players can shift platforms. It can't be made a priority when at least 1/3rd of the platforms would veto it instantly.

zelaminator · August 2021

It was offered, as a one time only deal.. the game is not set up for it, and the devs have said that it will not come again

Tandor · August 2021

To clarify, the one time copy was to an empty server with a blank database therefore. They simply don't have the facility to copy characters to an already established and populated server - which is why the PTS is wiped before the entire character database is copied from the NA server and then wiped again before the EU server is copied over.

And yes, it's highly unlikely that the platform contracts permit ZOS to poach customers from console to PC.

TigerSeptim · August 2021

Too bad the phrase "open-source MMO" is a contradiction. If a game could be made without the profit motive...

Tandor · August 2021

TigerSeptim wrote: »

Too bad the phrase "open-source MMO" is a contradiction. If a game could be made without the profit motive...

...it would be rubbish. No profit motive, no investment. No investment, no quality.

ADarklore · August 2021

As others have stated, any company would lose money if people could hop to another server. If people jumped from PS4 to PC, Sony would lose money... if people hopped from PC to PS4, ZOS would lose money. There is no 'sharing' of accounts between these companies and each wants as much money as possible... so if you want to jump from PS4 to PC, you have to buy everything all over again. No profit for companies, no incentive to make things easier for players.

ResidentContrarian · August 2021

TigerSeptim wrote: »

Too bad the phrase "open-source MMO" is a contradiction. If a game could be made without the profit motive...

You can always accomplish what you dream of. Coding is not exactly rocket science...

Plus there are plenty of tools these days that automate things.

Amottica · August 2021

kargen27 wrote: »

Simple answer is the game wasn't designed with that in mind and to try it now could cause catastrophic problems.

This is likely the reason. Business partners tend to avoid blaming other business partners in matters like this so I doubt Zenimax will comment.

Riddari · August 2021

Can someone explain how copying champion points and gear is any different than creating a new character when it comes to stress on the engine? I don't understand how simple data copying could really be that catastrophic.

Tandor · August 2021

Amottica wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

Simple answer is the game wasn't designed with that in mind and to try it now could cause catastrophic problems.

This is likely the reason. Business partners tend to avoid blaming other business partners in matters like this so I doubt Zenimax will comment.

They won't comment on the contractual arrangements between platform providers for sure, but they have already commented on the technical problems and said they don't have the coding in place to enable characters to be copied to established and populated servers and don't intend to develop any such coding.

ResidentContrarian · August 2021

Riddari wrote: »

Can someone explain how copying champion points and gear is any different than creating a new character when it comes to stress on the engine? I don't understand how simple data copying could really be that catastrophic.

It's not just copying, it is also verifying and fixing the data. If there is a mistake, then it has to be fixed, and that can be a problem with an infinite time cost if the entire data set has to be repeatedly copied and verified.

Imagine having to manually fix problems with that for an unknown number of accounts. Not worth the monetary investment, and it also risks angering players when if they encounter their data is in a buggy state.

All of that would also likely have to take place with the server down, and players already hate downtime being extended for bugs to be fixed, there is no way they will tolerate it for a mass account migration that doesn't benefit them.

starkerealm · August 2021

ADarklore wrote: »

As others have stated, any company would lose money if people could hop to another server. If people jumped from PS4 to PC, Sony would lose money... if people hopped from PC to PS4, ZOS would lose money. There is no 'sharing' of accounts between these companies and each wants as much money as possible... so if you want to jump from PS4 to PC, you have to buy everything all over again. No profit for companies, no incentive to make things easier for players.

This, and it's very likely the specific holdup is Sony. Apparently, transferring accounts to the consoles isn't much of an issue, but getting accounts off of the consoles is the real no-go.

Malpheus_Prime · August 2021

Who here doesn't have four copies of Skyrim? Think!

Sylvermynx · August 2021

Malpheus_Prime wrote: »

Who here doesn't have four copies of Skyrim? Think!

I don't. I only have the original release CE. I won't play SSE - don't like the brighter colors, and refuse to mess with CC.

Amottica · August 2021

Tandor wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

Simple answer is the game wasn't designed with that in mind and to try it now could cause catastrophic problems.

This is likely the reason. Business partners tend to avoid blaming other business partners in matters like this so I doubt Zenimax will comment.

They won't comment on the contractual arrangements between platform providers for sure, but they have already commented on the technical problems and said they don't have the coding in place to enable characters to be copied to established and populated servers and don't intend to develop any such coding.

I am aware of that and a statement. It does avoid the reason why. It makes more sense that one or more of the three business partners has said no vs Zenimax choosing not to go down this path for arbitrary reasons not mentioned

oldbobdude · August 2021

TigerSeptim wrote: »

Too bad the phrase "open-source MMO" is a contradiction. If a game could be made without the profit motive...

I'm sorry. Do you really expect a company to not pursue a profit? Who would invest in that?

People rightly expect to be paid for their labor. Don't you?

FlamingMeat · August 2021

Can I point to Warframe becoming cross-platform AND cross-progression? How does a studio like that get more pull with Sony, MS, and Nintendo than Zenimax lmao. The issue clearly doesn't lie with anyone other than Zenimax that it isn't being implemented, for whatever reason that may be.

Sylvermynx · August 2021

FlamingMeat wrote: »

Can I point to Warframe becoming cross-platform AND cross-progression? How does a studio like that get more pull with Sony, MS, and Nintendo than Zenimax lmao. The issue clearly doesn't lie with anyone other than Zenimax that it isn't being implemented, for whatever reason that may be.

Well, since we have no actual knowledge of the contract language..... yeah. We don't know, and we're not going to know.

JKorr · August 2021

FlamingMeat wrote: »

Can I point to Warframe becoming cross-platform AND cross-progression? How does a studio like that get more pull with Sony, MS, and Nintendo than Zenimax lmao. The issue clearly doesn't lie with anyone other than Zenimax that it isn't being implemented, for whatever reason that may be.

Oh yeah. All of that sounds just so definite....

https://www.fanbyte.com/guides/warframe-crossplay-support-cross-platform-play-guide/

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=warframe+deal+with+multiplatform&ia=web

There might be another issue; the game isn't built with crossplay in mind. New games can be coded with that in mind. Older games, not so much.

starkerealm · August 2021

JKorr wrote: »

FlamingMeat wrote: »

Can I point to Warframe becoming cross-platform AND cross-progression? How does a studio like that get more pull with Sony, MS, and Nintendo than Zenimax lmao. The issue clearly doesn't lie with anyone other than Zenimax that it isn't being implemented, for whatever reason that may be.

Oh yeah. All of that sounds just so definite....

https://www.fanbyte.com/guides/warframe-crossplay-support-cross-platform-play-guide/

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=warframe+deal+with+multiplatform&ia=web

There might be another issue; the game isn't built with crossplay in mind. New games can be coded with that in mind. Older games, not so much.

Amusingly, one of the other problems ESO faces is mentioned there as well, the consoles lag behind the PC releases (though, it's not as pronounced as with ESO.)

FlopsyPrince · August 2021

Tandor wrote: »

To clarify, the one time copy was to an empty server with a blank database therefore. They simply don't have the facility to copy characters to an already established and populated server - which is why the PTS is wiped before the entire character database is copied from the NA server and then wiped again before the EU server is copied over.

And yes, it's highly unlikely that the platform contracts permit ZOS to poach customers from console to PC.

Any database can copy a single row of data, even linked data.

Clearly they don't want to do that, but any database can.

I am not even in development any more, but even I know that!

FlopsyPrince · August 2021

The likely reason this doesn't happen is that they don't want to spend any time offering it and figure they can make more monetizing other things.

Even transferring Crowns is not allowed, and that would just involve decrementing one number and incrementing another number.

The message on some screens of things being "account wide" are lies!

starkerealm · August 2021

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

The likely reason this doesn't happen is that they don't want to spend any time offering it and figure they can make more monetizing other things.

Even transferring Crowns is not allowed, and that would just involve decrementing one number and incrementing another number.

The message on some screens of things being "account wide" are lies!

No, you just pinpointed the main issue.

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Even transferring Crowns is not allowed...

If you buy crowns on PS4, then Sony gets a cut.

If you buy crowns on XBox, Microsoft gets a cut (and until recently, Bethesda and Microsoft were different companies, remember.)

If you buy crowns on Steam, then Valve gets a cut.

If you buy crowns through the store on this site, ZOS gets to keep that to themselves. (Again, keeping in mind that until recently, Microsoft wasn't a part of that transaction at all.)

It's not about being unable to transfer the data. (As it turns out.) It's about that Sony cut. Sony doesn't want you buying crowns on this site, and then transferring them to their console. They also don't want you taking your account on their platform and transferring it to a vendor that doesn't give them a cut.

There's even a degree if this with Steam, and the complex relationship between Steam and PC accounts.

So, the reason you cannot move your account between consoles and PC is going to be the console manufacturers.

Also, probably the reason there's no crossplay. There have been developers (from other studios) talking about this a bit more openly in recent years that the big hangup for tri platform crossplay has been Sony. Sony is fine with PS/PC crossplay, but the instant there's any hint of Microsoft, they call the whole thing off.

You're not wrong about the Crown Store team though. Those guys really need to calm down.

FlamingMeat · August 2021

JKorr wrote: »

FlamingMeat wrote: »

Can I point to Warframe becoming cross-platform AND cross-progression? How does a studio like that get more pull with Sony, MS, and Nintendo than Zenimax lmao. The issue clearly doesn't lie with anyone other than Zenimax that it isn't being implemented, for whatever reason that may be.

Oh yeah. All of that sounds just so definite....

https://www.fanbyte.com/guides/warframe-crossplay-support-cross-platform-play-guide/

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=warframe+deal+with+multiplatform&ia=web

There might be another issue; the game isn't built with crossplay in mind. New games can be coded with that in mind. Older games, not so much.

They literally showed it in action at Tennocon lmao. That's an article literally 2 years old. Way to cherry pick.

https://youtu.be/4aEiY7bysyY?t=92

Video for the lazy.

AdamLAD · August 2021

Just merge servers on the same platform. Problem sorted. You have literally already bought the stuff on that platform. Why can't I play with MILLIONS of other players on the same platform in 2021 and this will go into 2022 and probably 2023. I'd pay money for it and i think many others would too

TwinStripeUK · August 2021

FlamingMeat wrote: »

Can I point to Warframe becoming cross-platform AND cross-progression? How does a studio like that get more pull with Sony, MS, and Nintendo than Zenimax lmao. The issue clearly doesn't lie with anyone other than Zenimax that it isn't being implemented, for whatever reason that may be.

The difference there is that:

1) DE have sole ownership of their server farms and aren't leasing them via a platform owner
2) DE aren't owned by anyone with a completing platform.

The issue might be Zenimax, but the issue isn't due to Zenimax...

jaws343 · August 2021

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

To clarify, the one time copy was to an empty server with a blank database therefore. They simply don't have the facility to copy characters to an already established and populated server - which is why the PTS is wiped before the entire character database is copied from the NA server and then wiped again before the EU server is copied over.

And yes, it's highly unlikely that the platform contracts permit ZOS to poach customers from console to PC.

Any database can copy a single row of data, even linked data.

Clearly they don't want to do that, but any database can.

I am not even in development any more, but even I know that!

It's not really a simple database copy though.

What happens when a copied user name matches a user name in the destination file. Whose gets precedence? Who is forced to change their account name?

What happens when 1 of 18 character names matches a character name already in the database? Who has to delete or rename a character, does the transfer fail until that is done?

What happens if the account name and all 18 characters match names against 19 different accounts already in the database?

FlamingMeat · August 2021

TwinStripeUK wrote: »

FlamingMeat wrote: »

Can I point to Warframe becoming cross-platform AND cross-progression? How does a studio like that get more pull with Sony, MS, and Nintendo than Zenimax lmao. The issue clearly doesn't lie with anyone other than Zenimax that it isn't being implemented, for whatever reason that may be.

The difference there is that:

1) DE have sole ownership of their server farms and aren't leasing them via a platform owner
2) DE aren't owned by anyone with a completing platform.

The issue might be Zenimax, but the issue isn't due to Zenimax...

Yeah which is what I said. There has to be something within a faculty of Zenimax holding them back from cross-play or cross-progression. Whether that's shareholders, marketing teams, resource allocation, services they offer that get legally fuzzy. Whatever it may be, it seems to not be an issue with Sony or MS.

Hell, in a roundabout way you can point to us not getting increased furniture limits and other QOL updates that would, undeniably, increase revenue due to us being able to consume and hoard more content, as a barometer of their internal philosophy.

FlamingMeat · August 2021

jaws343 wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

To clarify, the one time copy was to an empty server with a blank database therefore. They simply don't have the facility to copy characters to an already established and populated server - which is why the PTS is wiped before the entire character database is copied from the NA server and then wiped again before the EU server is copied over.

And yes, it's highly unlikely that the platform contracts permit ZOS to poach customers from console to PC.

Any database can copy a single row of data, even linked data.

Clearly they don't want to do that, but any database can.

I am not even in development any more, but even I know that!

It's not really a simple database copy though.

What happens when a copied user name matches a user name in the destination file. Whose gets precedence? Who is forced to change their account name?

What happens when 1 of 18 character names matches a character name already in the database? Who has to delete or rename a character, does the transfer fail until that is done?

What happens if the account name and all 18 characters match names against 19 different accounts already in the database?

How did it work when PC could transfer to Xbox and visa versa?