Any crossplay plans coming with the new servers changes?

Bokila

Merging consoles will be fine too. It would fix the activity issue. Eso Xbox EU pvp has been active for the first day after they fixed the servers. Now, the population is starting to decrease again.
It still wouldn't help for the ones that want to play it on the go on a steam deck for example and are bound to xbox. One smart thing they could do is add ESO in the Microsoft Store on PC and allow people that buy it from there to play on the same servers as Xbox players but without add ons. Ark is doing this and it works flawlessly.

edward_frigidhands

I would be 100% on board with cross play and the ability to resume the game on a console and then back to PC whenever I want.

Northwold

The servers are still dedicated servers for each platform in both regions. So I'm not seeing how the server upgrades would do anything that made cross play possible?

You'd need all data to be being shared between all servers. In other words, you'd need one server, not several, unless the architecture of the game was VERY radically changed with the sever upgrades.

I would LOVE to see, as a compromise, the ability to just pick a server whenever and have your data transferred across. But the data load this would put on the servers with lots of people doing it would presumably be hefty, unless you, say, sync every user's data weekly across every server and at selection time just update whatever data has changed since the sync.

But even if there was the storage available to do that, there are pros and cons. You might end up with literally the entire population of the game trying to play on only one server that would promptly grind to a halt. Conversely, you could also spread the load at busy times by saying "hi, users, why not try this server which has fewer users at the moment".

Maddoghalo1

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

While we don't have any news to share about cross-play or cross-save functionality at this time, we want to acknowledge that we do see this request often. We'd like to hear your thoughts on the reasons why you would like to see this functionality in ESO. What pain points are you running into that this would help solve? The feedback here is helpful for us to share with the team.

1. I have been playing since release on console. Countless hours, crown purchases, achievements, trial gear, maxed skills, completion overall. I’ve recently finally been able to return to PC and I just can’t start over. I don’t have my companions, my assistants, all the hard achievements and I just can’t start over. With console version besides ESO+ you have to pay for the monthly Xbox live on top of it. I’m forced to play on console still to enjoy this game but not sure how much longer I can keep doing that till I’m ultimately forced to switch back to guild wars 2 or another game on PC like destiny 2 which I can play on any platform any time on the same character. Neither which I have a special bond for as ESO.

2. Playing with friends. I have a lot of friends interested in the game but not all have the same platforms. So none of them have gotten it or have tried it and quit because they just don’t want to play it alone and return to an old game they are used to.

3. The decline in players is heavily noticeable since we are all segregated on different platforms. Instead of having access to a lively world with all the players together. Only when there’s new expansions or events when there’s a temporary boost in players. I get it, “the economy will get ruined” it’s a fictional world. Who cares, once it gets ruined the economy will reset itself to a new normal but instead of several separate economies now it’s one big one. Also PVP is a big factor people will rage about advantages or disadvantages. PvE it will benefit everyone. Like other crossplay games out there, let PvP players have the option to restrict PvP to the same platform or crossplay. Leave it up to the individual. Today crossplay just allows people from various devices and platforms to come together to enjoy a game no matter how you play or what you can afford to play with to have fun and to enjoy with friends.

**FINAL NOTE**

At least consider a crown store purchase option to be able to purchase the ability to transfer your account from one platform to another instead of just shutting down the concept of cross save/cross play to give individuals the ability to be able to continue to play the game they love on the platform of their choice. As we all know, the time you invest in this game and the money you spend on this game, times change and so do devices, if forced to start completely over from scratch vs saying goodbye to the game most people will say goodbye.


Cross play / Cross save benefits will drastically benefit this game over the negatives that will always surround it. Overall instead of segregating the ESO community based off what they play on, it will bring the entire community together to play it all as one. People will always be able to make new connections, new players will always be able to get support and run into others on their adventures no matter what their progress is in the game. It will be one large populated megaserver. The PvP concerns can be addressed starting with the players choice if they want to PvP with cross play or not and go from there. Bring the ESO community together as one and let us enjoy the game together in one big world and allow us to play on whatever we want to without having to say goodbye to all the past adventures already had because you have to start from scratch again. Life situations change, device availability changes with that, and we should be able to continue what makes us happy regardless. Also to be able to share that experience with friends, family, and others we run into the world.

Ek1

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

What pain points are you running into that this would help solve?

Maybe as high as a third of all players I encountered in the game are previously played on a console and are always pissed about all the lost progression in the transition. I can relate to them as soon as either one of the mega servers crashes or whatnot and you are logging into the other one it is like some masochism towards yourself. The game is there but everything is reset.
Cross-platform would also fix the big issue of all crown purchases being lost on mega server change.
There is no plan B if there is maintenance or other issues on the trial group's mega.

Simply put, players would be able to play on any platform while keeping all that they have. That is a rare feature among games. Very rare.

Quackery

ZOS has the resources to do this, there's no question about that. The issue is if they are WILLING to do it, to devote the resources and manpower to create cross-platform.

TaSheen

I personally do not want a gazoola of console players taking up pc server resources. Things can get iffy enough as it is.

TX12001rwb17_ESO

I can see how cross-play would make the game feel even more packed due to a higher number of players, there are a significant number of problems however..

1. Keyboard vs Controller

2. Addon's vs No Addons

3. The Economy

Out of all of them the third one would be the hardest to see working, on PC things are massively more expensive then console, Crown rates are 10x that so what would happen if they were merged? would things become slightly cheaper for PC players but vastly more expensive for console players? would the economy meet somewhere in the middle in favor of which side has the most players? imagine the reaction of "Joe Console" when he finds out he cannot afford crown items for gold anymore because everything is 10x as expensive.

The only way I could see cross-play working is either an extreme form of compensation for console players or a full reset of the economy, everyone would lose their gold and all materials however this is unrealistic and would probably kill the game.

Sleep724

I’ve never heard of anyone in ESO who uses a controller on pc complain that they are at a disadvantage against keyboard and mouse users.

The console economy was ruined the moment Zos allowed pc players to transfer when the the game first released. So anything that happens to console after a merge can’t be any worse to what was already done to it. The only issue I saw are player and character names. That could be tricky to sort out.

Twohothardware

ESO is not a game where PC players have any notable advantage over controller players outside of mods. Mods can either be disabled in Cyrodiil or we can just live with whatever slight advantages they might have.

Crossplay would bring a large shot in the arm to revitalize the game if everyone could play together. There's lot of players that would like to move to a different platform but can't without completely starting over. There would be fully populated Cyrodiil campaigns again and it would make it much easier to find groups for trials or any content you're interested in at any given time of day.

TaSheen

Nope. It would trash the already unhappy PC servers.

Bokila

Maddoghalo1 wrote: »

**FINAL NOTE**

At least consider a crown store purchase option to be able to purchase the ability to transfer your account from one platform to another instead of just shutting down the concept of cross save/cross play to give individuals the ability to be able to continue to play the game they love on the platform of their choice. As we all know, the time you invest in this game and the money you spend on this game, times change and so do devices, if forced to start completely over from scratch vs saying goodbye to the game most people will say goodbye.

Honestly i would take this solution as a bare minimum. If not even cross save is possible at least let me move my account. I seriously keep my xbox just for this game and i don't know for how much long. You are losing players here because you bind them to a certain server.
At least let me use the crown store stuff i paid money for on all the other servers...

Kappachi

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

While we don't have any news to share about cross-play or cross-save functionality at this time, we want to acknowledge that we do see this request often. We'd like to hear your thoughts on the reasons why you would like to see this functionality in ESO. What pain points are you running into that this would help solve? The feedback here is helpful for us to share with the team.

I really think that just any game that is available on multiple platforms should feature cross-play, if you want to do some kind of thing like not allow players to compete in competitive modes such as battlegrounds cross-play, or have it be opt-in due to mods and such that's fine... But an MMORPG should feel like a living breathing world, and sometimes you wind up in a zone with not many people on, even in PC NA, but if every console and PC was cross-play then I'm sure the world would feel more alive and have a lot more people running about which is really important for the lifespan of any game like this, in my opinion.

I am therefore 100% for cross-play and really wish that ESO had it much like FFXIV does. Oh, and dungeon queue times should be greatly fixed if it's cross-platform I'd imagine as it's very hard to find dungeons during certain times of the day.

Twohothardware wrote: »

ESO is not a game where PC players have any notable advantage over controller players outside of mods. Mods can either be disabled in Cyrodiil or we can just live with whatever slight advantages they might have.

Crossplay would bring a large shot in the arm to revitalize the game if everyone could play together. There's lot of players that would like to move to a different platform but can't without completely starting over. There would be fully populated Cyrodiil campaigns again and it would make it much easier to find groups for trials or any content you're interested in at any given time of day.

At least on PC NA, the alliance campaign is often full on all 3 sides.

Tandor

Twohothardware wrote: »

ESO is not a game where PC players have any notable advantage over controller players outside of mods. Mods can either be disabled in Cyrodiil or we can just live with whatever slight advantages they might have.

Crossplay would bring a large shot in the arm to revitalize the game if everyone could play together. There's lot of players that would like to move to a different platform but can't without completely starting over. There would be fully populated Cyrodiil campaigns again and it would make it much easier to find groups for trials or any content you're interested in at any given time of day.

None of which would ease the performance/disconnection issues PC players constantly complain about when doing PvP or trials, rather those issues would be made far worse. Meanwhile those players who preferred to remain on console would complain about the empty Cyrodiil campaigns and the difficulty finding groups for trials etc. Everyone's a loser!

XSTRONG

They could do dungeon ques, battleground ques, trial etc etc crossplay.

Also only allow items that drops in that specifik instance trade able, to prevent players moving gold and items from server to server.

But I dont think console pvpers like to meet pc gamers with all addons.

fizl101

XSTRONG wrote: »

They could do dungeon ques, battleground ques, trial etc etc crossplay.

Also only allow items that drops in that specifik instance trade able, to prevent players moving gold and items from server to server.

But I dont think console pvpers like to meet pc gamers with all addons.

not just in pvp, imagine doing a vet trial where some of the players have addons that give advice on mechanics, allow you to quickly swap gear etc and some cant

XSTRONG

fizl101 wrote: »

XSTRONG wrote: »

They could do dungeon ques, battleground ques, trial etc etc crossplay.

Also only allow items that drops in that specifik instance trade able, to prevent players moving gold and items from server to server.

But I dont think console pvpers like to meet pc gamers with all addons.

not just in pvp, imagine doing a vet trial where some of the players have addons that give advice on mechanics, allow you to quickly swap gear etc and some cant

Yep, if they ever consider crossplay the devs have some things to figure out first lol

boi_anachronism_

Absolutely not. Xbox and ps i could see but pc is a resounding no. The add ons would make it completely unfair frankly. Specifically combat add ons. Pc is a whole different beast all together.

ZOS_Kevin

Thanks to everyone who has given feedback so far. The plan here is to share your direct quotes and gather sentiment, both for and against, to share with the team. Appreciate everyone taking time to put responses together. Please make sure you are keeping it civil, incase you do not agree with someone's position. It's fine to disagree, just make sure you are keeping within Community Rules. Thanks all.

kargen27

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

blktauna wrote: »

Bokila wrote: »

Name duplications can be easly fixed by adding a platform icon next to the name and being able to select platform for some interactions like selecting it before sending a mail to someone.

You know it isn't that easy. I would love to see the schema they have for this game. I reckon my eyes would cross.

On the contrary, look at Overwatch. On launch, players used their gamertags, then eventually Cross-Play came out for it and all console players were forced to create Blizzard IDs, it would be as easy as having a new, first come, first serve, cross-play Zenimax ID that we all use to identify instead of our current account names.

In the grand scheme of things, this is a very minute problem. There are several games, like Overwatch, Fortnite, Warframe or even Black Desert Online, another MMO, that pushed through cross-play after release, successfully, that can be used as guidelines for a smooth release.

and what happens to my eighteen characters that are also tracked?

Tyrant_Tim

kargen27 wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

blktauna wrote: »

Bokila wrote: »

Name duplications can be easly fixed by adding a platform icon next to the name and being able to select platform for some interactions like selecting it before sending a mail to someone.

You know it isn't that easy. I would love to see the schema they have for this game. I reckon my eyes would cross.

On the contrary, look at Overwatch. On launch, players used their gamertags, then eventually Cross-Play came out for it and all console players were forced to create Blizzard IDs, it would be as easy as having a new, first come, first serve, cross-play Zenimax ID that we all use to identify instead of our current account names.

In the grand scheme of things, this is a very minute problem. There are several games, like Overwatch, Fortnite, Warframe or even Black Desert Online, another MMO, that pushed through cross-play after release, successfully, that can be used as guidelines for a smooth release.

and what happens to my eighteen characters that are also tracked?

I’ll give an example of one solution found in two highly played games recently… Diablo IV and Destiny 2, both of which being RPGs, you set your names to whatever you want.

If you want to name your character "Tim," you have the privilege of doing so, even if there are countless others sharing the name.

The likelihood of sharing a character name with someone else when using a first and last that are native to the Elder Scrolls universe are extremely low, and even if you miraculously find the one out of hundreds of thousands that does share the same name as you, perhaps they are a member of the Thieves Guild using your name as their fake identity. It’s an easy write-off for roleplay… something much easier to explain than the current names we run into every day…

unique names like…

• Pineapple Pen
• Major Slayer
• MMA Kid
• Basketball Is Life
• XxX Jon Snow XxX
• Ahdxoapajeakqoapancyu
• …

Of course, this is only one way to solve the character name problem, although, removing the need for “unique” names would free up countless names that are locked behind players that no longer play, and would allow players easy access to an identity they want, in the end, proving to be more user friendly long term.

preevious

Oof, no, I hope it will never happen .. because ..

We'd feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of pvpers voices suddenly cried out in rage for suppression of PC add-ons and would sadly never be silenced. I fear something terrible would happen.

I don't play PvP. I want to keep my add-ons, thanks.

Gray_howling_parrot

Hey friends!

1. I think cross play would be fantastic BUT similar to other games, sharding would likely be implemented to prevent server performance issues so I think the biggest thing would be that’s people on less populated servers like Xbox-EU would see more people more often AND you’d be able to play with friends on different platforms if that were the case
2. The issue of addons is, in my opinion, pretty negligible. They are FAR from cheating as some users have said - if they were, they wouldn’t be allowed by ZOS. Showing how much DPS you do, changing your UI or even streamlining your writs gives you no inherent power advantage over other players. Addons are meant to improve base gameplay for players, not enhance player power, so that notion is frankly silly.
3. This is directed at ZOS - players that say that they would quit without addons are a vocal MINORITY. Do I think the base game UI could use some updates and reimagining slightly? Sure. A built in minimap and more customization would be welcomed for sure! But it’s nothing to quit the game over … that’s very dramatic as I’m sure you’ve seen lots of forum posters have been.
4. There are plenty of players on PC that use minimal to no addons like me. The ones I do use could be implemented in game by the developers in a future update - lorebook locations, skyshard locations and DARKUI.

This would be a very difficult thing to do but overall I always stand by the fact that servers are made for ease of development by the company developing the game. Players would prefer one big server for everyone to play on.

The other big difficult hurdle would just be the economies because they are so vastly different, BUT we’ll cross that bridge if it ever comes to a PTR in the future.

preevious

Jaustink wrote: »

3. This is directed at ZOS - players that say that they would quit without addons are a vocal MINORITY. Do I think the base game UI could use some updates and reimagining slightly? Sure. A built in minimap and more customization would be welcomed for sure! But it’s nothing to quit the game over … that’s very dramatic as I’m sure you’ve seen lots of forum posters have been.

I totally get what you are saying, but in my opinion, you would be quite surprised.
It's hard to go back to earlier games because of that kind of things. There are many things we take for granted in video games that were not present in games of yore.
If the mods were to be banned, we'd lose a enormous quantity of functionnality (that, granted, should have been in the game, but are not). It would be very much like playing, for exemple, pathfinder 1, after having done pathfinder 2. Possible, but annoying, and ultimately, les pleasurable.
It would be quite enough for a lot of people not to be confortable anymore, and leaving for greener pastures. ESO is very good, but is not the only game of its kind.

Tandor

preevious wrote: »

Jaustink wrote: »

3. This is directed at ZOS - players that say that they would quit without addons are a vocal MINORITY. Do I think the base game UI could use some updates and reimagining slightly? Sure. A built in minimap and more customization would be welcomed for sure! But it’s nothing to quit the game over … that’s very dramatic as I’m sure you’ve seen lots of forum posters have been.

I totally get what you are saying, but in my opinion, you would be quite surprised.
It's hard to go back to earlier games because of that kind of things. There are many things we take for granted in video games that were not present in games of yore.
If the mods were to be banned, we'd lose a enormous quantity of functionnality (that, granted, should have been in the game, but are not). It would be very much like playing, for exemple, pathfinder 1, after having done pathfinder 2. Possible, but annoying, and ultimately, les pleasurable.
It would be quite enough for a lot of people not to be confortable anymore, and leaving for greener pastures. ESO is very good, but is not the only game of its kind.

It's all a matter of balance. It's true that some players would leave if add-ons were dropped, but it's also true that some players would leave if add-ons, especially but not exclusively those that hold players' hands by showing e.g. lorebook locations, were forced on them by being included in the base game without an option to toggle them off.

Frankly, I don't care one jot what happens to add-ons as long as I can continue to play on PC without them. If I'm ever forced to use them then that'll be me gone.

LunaFlora

how would it work when updates happen seeing as xbox and playstation get updates about two weeks later than pc?
seems hard to have two different game versions on the same mega servers?

unless i misunderstand how cross play would work and it wouldn't merge all the eu and na mega servers into simply two instead of six

Tyrant_Tim

LunaFlora wrote: »

how would it work when updates happen seeing as xbox and playstation get updates about two weeks later than pc?
seems hard to have two different game versions on the same mega servers?

unless i misunderstand how cross play would work and it wouldn't merge all the eu and na mega servers into simply two instead of six

Ideally it would mean that PC content drops would be dropped simultaneously with console. That ZOS would wait for the Microsoft and Sony’s certification before dropping content, like every other game that has cross-play continues to do so.

Noone knows how Zenimax would implement cross-play though at the end of the day, so you could be right that there would be two servers instead of 1 or 6, you could also be wrong, where players would set a preferred region between the ones bridged, and shard into another continent when they fast travel to a friend on an opposite one, or when their instance would have been empty, similar to how it’s done now.

On Xbox NA, there are multiple instances of Stonefalls constantly because of how popular of a dueling area it is, that I would imagine cross-play player migration would follow suit.

Gray_howling_parrot

preevious wrote: »

Jaustink wrote: »

3. This is directed at ZOS - players that say that they would quit without addons are a vocal MINORITY. Do I think the base game UI could use some updates and reimagining slightly? Sure. A built in minimap and more customization would be welcomed for sure! But it’s nothing to quit the game over … that’s very dramatic as I’m sure you’ve seen lots of forum posters have been.

I totally get what you are saying, but in my opinion, you would be quite surprised.
It's hard to go back to earlier games because of that kind of things. There are many things we take for granted in video games that were not present in games of yore.
If the mods were to be banned, we'd lose a enormous quantity of functionnality (that, granted, should have been in the game, but are not). It would be very much like playing, for exemple, pathfinder 1, after having done pathfinder 2. Possible, but annoying, and ultimately, les pleasurable.
It would be quite enough for a lot of people not to be confortable anymore, and leaving for greener pastures. ESO is very good, but is not the only game of its kind.

I totally see what you're saying.

Addons though are essentially QOL features that CAN and SHOULD be in the game natively and often times do get put in (ex. ability bar timers). If they did this, and removed a large quantity of addons, they'd have to simultaneously implement many of these ffeatures into the base game to prevent people with a complete reliance on them from being upset.

IndyMike26

I’ve played both PlayStation and Xbox NA servers and had to start over when I switched to Xbox for the next gen consoles. What I’ve noticed playing on both is that PvP is dying a slow death. Even if you could merge the NA servers for PlayStation and Xbox, it would breathe new life into PvP. I imagine it would breathe new life into the entire game because you would be combining active player bases and dead zones would presumably come back to life. The economies between PlayStation and Xbox NA servers are also pretty similar (or at least they were as of a little over a year ago).

IMO PC has to stay separate though because of the add-ons and the economy is significantly different.

RaptorRodeoGod

The idea of cross save/play is cool.

However, they should NEVER do it. Forget all the addon business, does anybody realize how hyper-inflated the market on PC is compared to console? There is absolutely no way console players could keep up with that, we'll be left in the dust. The crown to gold exchange rate alone is over 10x on PC compared to console. It's literally going to devalue your actual dollars.