Do I have to buy the game to access the PTS?

LadySinflower · January 2020

I am an Xbox player but I do have a laptop. I don't want to play the game on two platforms but it might be cool to occasionally play with the PTS. Can I just access the PTS on my laptop without buying a PC copy of the game? You are correct in assuming that I don't really understand how it works. That's why I'm asking. Thank you.

Jayne_Doe · January 2020

I believe that you do need to purchase the PC version of the game in order to access the PTS. I'm on XB, but have the PC version of the game since I started playing at launch and then switched to XB with the console copy (though I still play on PC).

You could wait until the next sale on the base game or find it cheap somewhere. It has definitely been helpful to hop on the PTS to test out the things I'm interested in.

ETA: You will also have to download the PTS version of the game, so you have to have enough space for both the live version and PTS version of the game.

SeaGtGruff · January 2020

I don't see how you can play the game on the PTS without owning the game, since they copy one of the live servers (NA or EU, alternating) to the test server. Hence, if you don't have an account and any characters on one of the live servers, you won't have any characters on the test server. I mean, you can create new characters on the test server, but you need an account for that, so...

Jolipinator · January 2020

Yes. I bought the PC version last year on sale for 10 Euro. I downloaded the PTS without downloading the full game, and played through Dragonhold before it could be spoiled.

I hope I can do the same for the new content this year, but I remember something about needing an invite for the chapter PTS. :'(

idk · January 2020

It uses the same launcher with the PTS being an option to DL there so it would seem one must own the game unless maybe a trial occurs during the PTS cycle.

As Joli pointed out above it is pretty cheap when found on sale. Worth getting if you can run it on your laptop as you can test things out on the PTS all year long since it is always available.

Jayne_Doe · January 2020

Jolipinator wrote: »

Yes. I bought the PC version last year on sale for 10 Euro. I downloaded the PTS without downloading the full game, and played through Dragonhold before it could be spoiled.

I hope I can do the same for the new content this year, but I remember something about needing an invite for the chapter PTS. :'(

Ah...that's interesting that you can just download the PTS version of the game without having to have the live version installed.

As for testing out the new chapter, we'll see if invites are needed this year. For Morrowind, there was a very strict NDA and only players with invites got to test it. My spouse had an invite to that, but I don't think I did. However, with Summerset, I was able to test it without getting an official invite. But I think it was because I fell into the category of automatic access if you'd tested Morrowind, and I did test it during it's brief public phase. Unless I'm misremembering entirely! By Elsweyr, I'm not even sure invites were necessary. Maybe they were, but since I had tested Summerset, I was golden. We'll see what they do for this next chapter.

January1171 · January 2020

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/56099
"If you’ve tested the game previously, either for the Morrowind or Summerset Chapter, you can get into this new test from the ESO launcher with no invite required. Just enable “Show Public Test Environment" from your launcher settings. If you haven’t tested a Chapter for us before, but have played ESO this last year, you’ll receive (or have already received!) an email invite with the details. Because this is such a large test, invites will be sent out over the next few days, so don’t worry if you don’t immediately get yours."

You do need an invite, but it sounds like the invites get sent to all players on pc/mac. Just maybe check that your emails are turned on in account settings.

There was also an NDA on the main story quest, but otherwise there aren't really restrictions on the pts.

Aisleyne · January 2020

As others have said, you do need to purchase a copy of the game. When I was first considering switching to PC, I tried to use the PTS during a free to play weekend and it would not allow me access. I do feel that it is absolutely worth the money to be able to experiment freely. Also, if you plan to remain a console player you need only buy the basic version of the game which is often 50% off. The PTS gives you a daily allowance of crowns and all content is only 1 crown, so you will still be able to access all DLCs.

LadySinflower · January 2020

Thank you everyone! My laptop is a gaming laptop with a 17" screen and a huge hard drive so I think I can run the game. I'll look for an ultra cheap version of the base game. I'm probably too late to get an invite for the skyrim chapter but that isn't why I was wanting the PTS. Thank you again!

Contaminate · January 2020

You can buy base game disk from a physical retailer and only spend $5, all you need is the base game access and you can download the pts