Why can’t accounts be transferred to different console/PC

nb_rich

Out of curiosity does anyone know why account’s can’t be transferred to different consoles/PC ?

I have been playing for so long on playstation and completed so many things like collecting yearly event stuff,, sets, achievements and collectables like mounts, but want to play on PC since iI only hear good things about playing on PC as apposed to console. I would even consider switching to xbox since rumor has it the new single player elder scrolls game may be a xbox exclusive (I can be wrong about this) and would be cool just to have all my elder scrolls games on one console.

Hopefully this is something that can happen in the future.

Elsonso

The console "First Party" has to allow such things. That means that XBox and Playstation have to be onboard with the idea. This is not currently the case, per speculation.

Edit: Actually, I am now recalling that Lambert said this on his stream, so not speculation.

kringled_1

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

nb_rich

Elsonso wrote: »

The console "First Party" has to allow such things. That means that XBox and Playstation have to be onboard with the idea. This is not currently the case, per speculation.

Edit: Actually, I am now recalling that Lambert said this on his stream, so not speculation.

Ahh makes sense

DMuehlhausen

PCs you can just by logging in, but yes as they said there are technical and agreement issues among Sony, Xbox for allowing it.

nb_rich

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

I hear you.

If I am not mistaken though im pretty sure they allowed people that played eso on stadia to transfer there accounts to PC.

I think what the previous person before you said may be correct,. They probably need all gaming platforms to agree.

Elsonso

nb_rich wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

I hear you.

If I am not mistaken though im pretty sure they allowed people that played eso on stadia to transfer there accounts to PC.

I think what the previous person before you said may be correct,. They probably need all gaming platforms to agree.

The Stadia accounts were already stored on the target megaserver. They were already on the PC megaserver, so they did not have to transfer. What ZOS did was allow games purchased from Stadia to be active without Stadia, basically giving these people credit for purchasing the game so they would not have to purchase it again.

jaws343

Because each console and PC ecosystem is siloed off from one another, the logistics of allowing transfers would be immense.

Just off the top of my head, you have to deal with:
- Account names: If the person transferring from PC to Xbox has the same username, who is forced to change? Xbox usernames are account names for the xbox, not the game. But what if it is a longtime, well known PC player? That decision could drive people away from the game.
- Character names: 18 of them potentially. Again, who would be forced to change their character names.
- Gold Economy: Much easier to amass tons of gold on PC compared to console. What would prevent a player from transferring to console under the sole purpose of flooding the market with their gold stores?

nb_rich

jaws343 wrote: »

Because each console and PC ecosystem is siloed off from one another, the logistics of allowing transfers would be immense.

Just off the top of my head, you have to deal with:
- Account names: If the person transferring from PC to Xbox has the same username, who is forced to change? Xbox usernames are account names for the xbox, not the game. But what if it is a longtime, well known PC player? That decision could drive people away from the game.
- Character names: 18 of them potentially. Again, who would be forced to change their character names.
- Gold Economy: Much easier to amass tons of gold on PC compared to console. What would prevent a player from transferring to console under the sole purpose of flooding the market with their gold stores?

This is why I like the forum because people say things I ain't ever think of lol. Character/account names didnt even cross my mind but you made a good point

Ragnarok0130

Elsonso wrote: »

nb_rich wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

I hear you.

If I am not mistaken though im pretty sure they allowed people that played eso on stadia to transfer there accounts to PC.

I think what the previous person before you said may be correct,. They probably need all gaming platforms to agree.

The Stadia accounts were already stored on the target megaserver. They were already on the PC megaserver, so they did not have to transfer. What ZOS did was allow games purchased from Stadia to be active without Stadia, basically giving these people credit for purchasing the game so they would not have to purchase it again.

It is possible to transfer between megaservers since ZoS allowed PC players to transfer to console at console ESO launch in 2015. https://eip.gg/eso/news/transfer-your-elder-scrolls-online-account-to-console/

Regardless of if you play on PSN or Xbox your Zenimax account and all of your data is stored on ZoS’ servers which is why we could transfer to console in the first place. There are likely other reasons ZoS isn’t allowing this basic player first functionality which most likely comes down to pleasing business partners (MS/Sony) as well as wanting current PC transfers to rebuy all of their nice crown store items they had on console.

Danikat

DMuehlhausen wrote: »

PCs you can just by logging in, but yes as they said there are technical and agreement issues among Sony, Xbox for allowing it.

You can play on the other server just by logging into it, but you can't transfer anything. All your characters, items, gold, crown store purchases etc are server-specific.

The only things which copy over are purchases made outside the game like chapters and ESO+.

fizl101

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

nb_rich wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

I hear you.

If I am not mistaken though im pretty sure they allowed people that played eso on stadia to transfer there accounts to PC.

I think what the previous person before you said may be correct,. They probably need all gaming platforms to agree.

The Stadia accounts were already stored on the target megaserver. They were already on the PC megaserver, so they did not have to transfer. What ZOS did was allow games purchased from Stadia to be active without Stadia, basically giving these people credit for purchasing the game so they would not have to purchase it again.

It is possible to transfer between megaservers since ZoS allowed PC players to transfer to console at console ESO launch in 2015. https://eip.gg/eso/news/transfer-your-elder-scrolls-online-account-to-console/

Regardless of if you play on PSN or Xbox your Zenimax account and all of your data is stored on ZoS’ servers which is why we could transfer to console in the first place. There are likely other reasons ZoS isn’t allowing this basic player first functionality which most likely comes down to pleasing business partners (MS/Sony) as well as wanting current PC transfers to rebuy all of their nice crown store items they had on console.

Transfer to console was a one off migration to an empty database. It would not be a pleasant wxperience trying to merge data from different db let alone all the other reasons mentioned above

kringled_1

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

nb_rich wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

I hear you.

If I am not mistaken though im pretty sure they allowed people that played eso on stadia to transfer there accounts to PC.

I think what the previous person before you said may be correct,. They probably need all gaming platforms to agree.

The Stadia accounts were already stored on the target megaserver. They were already on the PC megaserver, so they did not have to transfer. What ZOS did was allow games purchased from Stadia to be active without Stadia, basically giving these people credit for purchasing the game so they would not have to purchase it again.

It is possible to transfer between megaservers since ZoS allowed PC players to transfer to console at console ESO launch in 2015. https://eip.gg/eso/news/transfer-your-elder-scrolls-online-account-to-console/

Regardless of if you play on PSN or Xbox your Zenimax account and all of your data is stored on ZoS’ servers which is why we could transfer to console in the first place. There are likely other reasons ZoS isn’t allowing this basic player first functionality which most likely comes down to pleasing business partners (MS/Sony) as well as wanting current PC transfers to rebuy all of their nice crown store items they had on console.

The "transfer" at console launch was essentially a full copy of the existing database of pc character/account data to empty console databases. It's not a method that can be used outside of that condition. Zos does this kind of copy regularly for the PTS, bringing over either pc/NA or EU characters, but note that they do not (and probably cannot) bring both over to pts at the same time.

Tandor

fizl101 wrote: »

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

nb_rich wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

I hear you.

If I am not mistaken though im pretty sure they allowed people that played eso on stadia to transfer there accounts to PC.

I think what the previous person before you said may be correct,. They probably need all gaming platforms to agree.

The Stadia accounts were already stored on the target megaserver. They were already on the PC megaserver, so they did not have to transfer. What ZOS did was allow games purchased from Stadia to be active without Stadia, basically giving these people credit for purchasing the game so they would not have to purchase it again.

It is possible to transfer between megaservers since ZoS allowed PC players to transfer to console at console ESO launch in 2015. https://eip.gg/eso/news/transfer-your-elder-scrolls-online-account-to-console/

Regardless of if you play on PSN or Xbox your Zenimax account and all of your data is stored on ZoS’ servers which is why we could transfer to console in the first place. There are likely other reasons ZoS isn’t allowing this basic player first functionality which most likely comes down to pleasing business partners (MS/Sony) as well as wanting current PC transfers to rebuy all of their nice crown store items they had on console.

Transfer to console was a one off migration to an empty database. It would not be a pleasant wxperience trying to merge data from different db let alone all the other reasons mentioned above

Not only unpleasant, but impossible according to previous statements from ZOS. They simply don't have the program with which to do it, and don't intend to create one - probably in part because it wouldn't be cost/time-effective, and partly because the contracts with MS and Sony probably prohibit one provider from "poaching" accounts from another one.

Elsonso

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

nb_rich wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

I hear you.

If I am not mistaken though im pretty sure they allowed people that played eso on stadia to transfer there accounts to PC.

I think what the previous person before you said may be correct,. They probably need all gaming platforms to agree.

The Stadia accounts were already stored on the target megaserver. They were already on the PC megaserver, so they did not have to transfer. What ZOS did was allow games purchased from Stadia to be active without Stadia, basically giving these people credit for purchasing the game so they would not have to purchase it again.

It is possible to transfer between megaservers since ZoS allowed PC players to transfer to console at console ESO launch in 2015. https://eip.gg/eso/news/transfer-your-elder-scrolls-online-account-to-console/

Regardless of if you play on PSN or Xbox your Zenimax account and all of your data is stored on ZoS’ servers which is why we could transfer to console in the first place. There are likely other reasons ZoS isn’t allowing this basic player first functionality which most likely comes down to pleasing business partners (MS/Sony) as well as wanting current PC transfers to rebuy all of their nice crown store items they had on console.

It is most certainly possible, but I think the problem lies in copying an... one... (1)... account from Megaserver A to Megaserver B. They can do it, if they want to sit down and write the program that does that extraction from one megaserver and imports it into the other, but because there is no reason to do it, no one has written the program.

For PTS, it is a copy and replace of the entire account database. (probably more than one database) I imagine that this is how they did the consoles, too. Remember that the console servers were not online when they did the copy, so there were no pre-existing accounts on the server. They could just do a copy. It was not a live copy but a snapshot from several days before. They had plenty of time to copy the databases and sort that out and, if they wanted, delete the accounts that did not ask to be copied.

Amottica

nb_rich wrote: »

Out of curiosity does anyone know why account’s can’t be transferred to different consoles/PC ?

The general reason is stated by Zenimax. They have chosen not to build the tool required for transferring such information from one server to another live server and have never done so.

As for the reason for that decision, one can only speculate. However, since building such a tool is not difficult and Zenimax could generate revenue from such an offering it would seem there is a strong reason that prevents Zenimax from considering such an offering.

The most likely culprit is a term in the contract with at least one of their business partners and Zenimax does not feel it is worth renegotiating that term or is not willing to give up what would be needed to do so.

Again, we can only speculate on such matters but ti does seem this decision has stood the test of time and will not change anytime soon.

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

nb_rich wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

I hear you.

If I am not mistaken though im pretty sure they allowed people that played eso on stadia to transfer there accounts to PC.

I think what the previous person before you said may be correct,. They probably need all gaming platforms to agree.

The Stadia accounts were already stored on the target megaserver. They were already on the PC megaserver, so they did not have to transfer. What ZOS did was allow games purchased from Stadia to be active without Stadia, basically giving these people credit for purchasing the game so they would not have to purchase it again.

It is possible to transfer between megaservers since ZoS allowed PC players to transfer to console at console ESO launch in 2015. https://eip.gg/eso/news/transfer-your-elder-scrolls-online-account-to-console/.

This was for transferring to a server that was not live. Zenimax has not done what OP is asking for since all servers are live now.

There are other considerations that need to be taken into account when the server is live, which requires a more extensive tool to handle the work which Zenimax has said they do not plan to build as I inferred in the comment above.

zaria

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

Agree, most likely an account is spread out over multiple tables, account with account info, bank, achievements, houses and so on, characters with their stats and items also quest status and stuff done.

Its doable but it has to be an program who grabs all these data and move it to another server, its probably a month or two work for an developer including testing.
Main benefit as I see it is that this could be used to back up accounts in addition to move them.
This would be critical to have if an high number of accounts got damaged for some reason.

I_killed_Vivec

Amottica wrote: »

nb_rich wrote: »

Out of curiosity does anyone know why account’s can’t be transferred to different consoles/PC ?

The general reason is stated by Zenimax. They have chosen not to build the tool required for transferring such information from one server to another live server and have never done so.

As for the reason for that decision, one can only speculate. However, since building such a tool is not difficult and Zenimax could generate revenue from such an offering it would seem there is a strong reason that prevents Zenimax from considering such an offering.

The most likely culprit is a term in the contract with at least one of their business partners and Zenimax does not feel it is worth renegotiating that term or is not willing to give up what would be needed to do so.

Again, we can only speculate on such matters but ti does seem this decision has stood the test of time and will not change anytime soon.

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

nb_rich wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

I hear you.

If I am not mistaken though im pretty sure they allowed people that played eso on stadia to transfer there accounts to PC.

I think what the previous person before you said may be correct,. They probably need all gaming platforms to agree.

The Stadia accounts were already stored on the target megaserver. They were already on the PC megaserver, so they did not have to transfer. What ZOS did was allow games purchased from Stadia to be active without Stadia, basically giving these people credit for purchasing the game so they would not have to purchase it again.

It is possible to transfer between megaservers since ZoS allowed PC players to transfer to console at console ESO launch in 2015. https://eip.gg/eso/news/transfer-your-elder-scrolls-online-account-to-console/.

This was for transferring to a server that was not live. Zenimax has not done what OP is asking for since all servers are live now.

There are other considerations that need to be taken into account when the server is live, which requires a more extensive tool to handle the work which Zenimax has said they do not plan to build as I inferred in the comment above.

One speculation is the obvious contractual binds that apply between the 3. Any switch between platforms will hurt one and benefit another. Imagine if you could switch between XBox and PSx...

AdamLAD

I really do hope one day zenimax does put the work in and merge or allow transfers. Merging would be the best option. There's so many players out there and all of us can only play with a fraction of it

zaria

AdamLAD wrote: »

I really do hope one day zenimax does put the work in and merge or allow transfers. Merging would be the best option. There's so many players out there and all of us can only play with a fraction of it

Merges will put two servers onto one, increasing over population problems during events and releases.
Just new dungeons releases tend to break grouping on PC-EU even if not using finder, or queuing for battlegrounds.
For unknown reasons BG and dungeon queues are connected somehow.
This one wonder if they made an deal with Clavicus Vile or Sheogorath?

Amottica

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

nb_rich wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

I hear you.

If I am not mistaken though im pretty sure they allowed people that played eso on stadia to transfer there accounts to PC.

I think what the previous person before you said may be correct,. They probably need all gaming platforms to agree.

The Stadia accounts were already stored on the target megaserver. They were already on the PC megaserver, so they did not have to transfer. What ZOS did was allow games purchased from Stadia to be active without Stadia, basically giving these people credit for purchasing the game so they would not have to purchase it again.

It is possible to transfer between megaservers since ZoS allowed PC players to transfer to console at console ESO launch in 2015. https://eip.gg/eso/news/transfer-your-elder-scrolls-online-account-to-console/.

This was for transferring to a server that was not live. Zenimax has not done what OP is asking for since all servers are live now.There are other considerations that need to be taken into account when the server is live, which requires a more extensive tool to handle the work which Zenimax has said they do not plan to build as I inferred in the comment above.

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

nb_rich wrote: »

Out of curiosity does anyone know why account’s can’t be transferred to different consoles/PC ?

The general reason is stated by Zenimax. They have chosen not to build the tool required for transferring such information from one server to another live server and have never done so.

As for the reason for that decision, one can only speculate. However, since building such a tool is not difficult and Zenimax could generate revenue from such an offering it would seem there is a strong reason that prevents Zenimax from considering such an offering.

The most likely culprit is a term in the contract with at least one of their business partners and Zenimax does not feel it is worth renegotiating that term or is not willing to give up what would be needed to do so.

Again, we can only speculate on such matters but ti does seem this decision has stood the test of time and will not change anytime soon.

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

nb_rich wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

Even without the console manufacturer in the picture, they still can't do it. There are no transfers between pc/NA and pc/EU. My belief is that character and account data are stored in a fashion that does not allow for an easy transfer, and that zos has chosen not to put in the work required to develop a tool to make it possible.

I hear you.

If I am not mistaken though im pretty sure they allowed people that played eso on stadia to transfer there accounts to PC.

I think what the previous person before you said may be correct,. They probably need all gaming platforms to agree.

The Stadia accounts were already stored on the target megaserver. They were already on the PC megaserver, so they did not have to transfer. What ZOS did was allow games purchased from Stadia to be active without Stadia, basically giving these people credit for purchasing the game so they would not have to purchase it again.

It is possible to transfer between megaservers since ZoS allowed PC players to transfer to console at console ESO launch in 2015. https://eip.gg/eso/news/transfer-your-elder-scrolls-online-account-to-console/.

This was for transferring to a server that was not live. Zenimax has not done what OP is asking for since all servers are live now.

There are other considerations that need to be taken into account when the server is live, which requires a more extensive tool to handle the work which Zenimax has said they do not plan to build as I inferred in the comment above.

One speculation is the obvious contractual binds that apply between the 3. Any switch between platforms will hurt one and benefit another. Imagine if you could switch between XBox and PSx...

Exactly why I noted contract terms were the likely culprit. Zenimax would not say it is because it is a very bad business practice to toss your business partners under the bus.

danno8

jaws343 wrote: »

Because each console and PC ecosystem is siloed off from one another, the logistics of allowing transfers would be immense.

Just off the top of my head, you have to deal with:
- Account names: If the person transferring from PC to Xbox has the same username, who is forced to change? Xbox usernames are account names for the xbox, not the game. But what if it is a longtime, well known PC player? That decision could drive people away from the game.
- Character names: 18 of them potentially. Again, who would be forced to change their character names.
- Gold Economy: Much easier to amass tons of gold on PC compared to console. What would prevent a player from transferring to console under the sole purpose of flooding the market with their gold stores?

Account names: The person transferring would be the one who would need to change names, since they are the ones initiating the action it would be their consequence to take on. Names can be changed immediately by the program adding a string of characters to the end of the account name, and then flagging the account for a name change prior to the next log in.

Character names: As above. It is a risk and a consequence the person who initiated the transfer would be responsible to deal with.

Gold economy: One person with a lot of gold is unlikely to have a large impact on an economy of hundreds of thousands of people. IF 500k people have an average of 1 million gold each, that is an economy of 500B gold. Even if someone came in with 1 billion gold it would be an increase of .2% of gold into the market.

On another note, transferring accounts is not some ground breaking new technology. I am certain it would just require some time and work to design a program that can automate it. Other games do this all the time. Other than deals with Sony and Microsoft I think there is just no incentive for ZoS to do transfers. Why bother since the game in humming along just fine, there are no "dead servers" like in other games thanks the the "megaserver" structure in the game.

But we should ask ourselves, given the history of bugs, broken systems and lingering issues that the game has, do we really want to have ZoS messing around with the database in such a way? I don't feel very comfortable with the prospect of another "danno8" account on Xbox or PS coming over and potentially having an automated program decide what should be happening with my account and characters. Not in this game anyway.

ZOS_Bill

As the OP question regarding transfers has been answered, we will now be closing the thread going forward. Our FAQ below contains additional information that may help.

Can I transfer my ESO account and characters between different platforms or servers?