Platform Swapping Possible In Future?

Sealish · September 2020

So Microsoft is pretty good with pushing for Crossplay and stuff.
I can easily see the issues with Crossplay for this game because of the competitive edge PCs have over Consoles and because of Guilds/Guild Traders.

What WOULD be cool though is if they allowed you to play your account on other platforms provided you owned the same level of access on both platforms. Guilds would be platform independent, but if you could load up your character and play on any platform it would be really nice. Other than having a separate guild list for every platform I don't see this having any issue. Maybe in the two weeks between a PC and Console release for an expansion you would be locked to PC if you load into it... but that can easily be fixed by changing the two week policy.

This would also make a lot of sense for ZOS to allow from a business perspective too. ESO Plus and anything bought with crowns would be account wide and would be active on all platforms, but the base game and any chapters that require real money purchase people would have to re-buy on every platform that they want to play on (except maybe if the game gets added to Game Pass... then PC and Xbox would be covered but PS would still need to buy them) just like any game.

I can easily see a lot of people buying the game for more than one platform, especially with the new console generation coming up. Now would be the perfect time to implement something like this so that people going from PS to Xbox or vice versa could keep using their same account on their new platform.

trackdemon5512 · September 2020

The problem lies in the fact that accounts are duplicated across servers. By accounts I mean character names, player IDs, etc. Crossplay would cause all sorts of issues with this for one as it’s tied to items and more.

Beyond that you have the main issue of PC add-ons versus console. Sony abhors add-ons for security reasons. It’s already clear that developers can sneak in code that’s damaging to platform security/in violation of contractual agreements (Apple vs Epic Fortnite right now). Sony has refused many many mods and etc in the past due to this. Look at the discrepancies between available mods for Fallout 4 and Skyrim as an example.

Lastly you have performance that varies wildly between systems. You would have full on rage from console players if they had to compete against PC and vice-versa if PC performance was brought down to console levels to compensate.

And let’s not forget that all megaservers are physically separate and not connected to one another. Yea, you’ll never have crossplay for ESO and with the size of player populations on the respective servers it really isn’t necessary to combine them.

Donny_Vito · September 2020

You can find a plethora of professional thoughts as to why this is not going to happen....search "account transfer." If this game was developed from the start with cross-play or account-fluidity in mind, then yes it would be a lot easier. I would not expect anything different once Microsoft owns the account next year.

HowlKimchi · September 2020

Would be very cool but unlikely

Sealish · September 2020

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

The problem lies in the fact that accounts are duplicated across servers. By accounts I mean character names, player IDs, etc. Crossplay would cause all sorts of issues with this for one as it’s tied to items and more.

Beyond that you have the main issue of PC add-ons versus console. Sony abhors add-ons for security reasons. It’s already clear that developers can sneak in code that’s damaging to platform security/in violation of contractual agreements (Apple vs Epic Fortnite right now). Sony has refused many many mods and etc in the past due to this. Look at the discrepancies between available mods for Fallout 4 and Skyrim as an example.

Lastly you have performance that varies wildly between systems. You would have full on rage from console players if they had to compete against PC and vice-versa if PC performance was brought down to console levels to compensate.

And let’s not forget that all megaservers are physically separate and not connected to one another. Yea, you’ll never have crossplay for ESO and with the size of player populations on the respective servers it really isn’t necessary to combine them.

That's why I said right at the beginning that I know crossplay was not an option and wasn't advocating for it.

Sealish · September 2020

Donny_Vito wrote: »

You can find a plethora of professional thoughts as to why this is not going to happen....search "account transfer." If this game was developed from the start with cross-play or account-fluidity in mind, then yes it would be a lot easier. I would not expect anything different once Microsoft owns the account next year.

This has happened before though.

When Console launched, people were able to transfer their accounts from PC to PS4 or Xbox. So we know it is technically possible. It may be a lot of work to make it possible again, but the potential to sell a bunch more copies of the game may be worth it financially. Or even if they just made a "Platform Transfer" option in account settings and charged you every time you did it along with you having to own the content on the new platform instead of it being "On the fly" whenever you wanted to.

trackdemon5512 · September 2020

@Sealish

Unfortunately that was the only possible instance of server transferring as the PS4 and Xbox servers were empty at the times. Today the amount of accounts to potentially switch over back and forth would present a monumental developing challenge, esp with the issue of forced character naming changes, amount of data in terms of acquired items, in-game progress, etc. It’s a lot for developers to do, especially when they know that players looking to switch platforms when prodded will simply pay for a new copy and start anew.

Tandor · September 2020

Sealish wrote: »

Donny_Vito wrote: »

You can find a plethora of professional thoughts as to why this is not going to happen....search "account transfer." If this game was developed from the start with cross-play or account-fluidity in mind, then yes it would be a lot easier. I would not expect anything different once Microsoft owns the account next year.

This has happened before though.

When Console launched, people were able to transfer their accounts from PC to PS4 or Xbox. So we know it is technically possible. It may be a lot of work to make it possible again, but the potential to sell a bunch more copies of the game may be worth it financially. Or even if they just made a "Platform Transfer" option in account settings and charged you every time you did it along with you having to own the content on the new platform instead of it being "On the fly" whenever you wanted to.

ZOS have made it very clear that the only reason the initial transfers were possible was because they were being made to a totally empty server, and that they do not have the ability to transfer characters from one populated server to another populated server, nor do they have any intention to create such an ability.

Taleof2Cities · September 2020

Tandor wrote: »

Sealish wrote: »

Donny_Vito wrote: »

You can find a plethora of professional thoughts as to why this is not going to happen....search "account transfer." If this game was developed from the start with cross-play or account-fluidity in mind, then yes it would be a lot easier. I would not expect anything different once Microsoft owns the account next year.

This has happened before though.

When Console launched, people were able to transfer their accounts from PC to PS4 or Xbox. So we know it is technically possible. It may be a lot of work to make it possible again, but the potential to sell a bunch more copies of the game may be worth it financially. Or even if they just made a "Platform Transfer" option in account settings and charged you every time you did it along with you having to own the content on the new platform instead of it being "On the fly" whenever you wanted to.

ZOS have made it very clear that the only reason the initial transfers were possible was because they were being made to a totally empty server, and that they do not have the ability to transfer characters from one populated server to another populated server, nor do they have any intention to create such an ability.

@Tandor is right.

The Microsoft deal isn't closing until well in to 2021.

But, that won't stop players from posting their personal laundry list of items ... even if they are impossible from a database/data transfer perspective.

itscompton · September 2020

I hadn't though of this before but now that Microsoft owns Zeni it would make sense for them to implement an account transfer/copy feature from PS to PC or Xbox.
Now that I've got a gaming PC that can do 4k@100FPS+ at highest settings in much more demanding games than ESO I'd love to be playing on it instead but starting from scratch when I have a 1200 CP account on PS is just to much.

virtus753 · September 2020

itscompton wrote: »

I hadn't though of this before but now that Microsoft owns Zeni it would make sense for them to implement an account transfer/copy feature from PS to PC or Xbox.
Now that I've got a gaming PC that can do 4k@100FPS+ at highest settings in much more demanding games than ESO I'd love to be playing on it instead but starting from scratch when I have a 1200 CP account on PS is just to much.

Microsoft does not own Zenimax. The deal will not close until the second half of fiscal year 2021 (April-September in non-fiscal terms).

Then we'll see if MS actually thinks it worthwhile to invest the resources in develop the tool necessary to do this. My guess would be no, but I don't work for them.

Trevore · October 2020

When Xbox Series X and PS4 release, there's going to be an option to upgrade your account to those consoles. This was confirmed by ZOS. Although I'm not sure if this counts as another account transfer, but this kind of does give evidence that they are still considering cross play, so I guess there's still hopes for it?

kargen27 · October 2020

Another problem is price discrepancies across the platforms. Would cross play allow a player to farm materials and other stuff on PC where add-ons make it much easier then sell them on the other platform? That would cause all kinds of problems for players that are on a console only.

richo262 · October 2020

With collections coming cross play, or something similar is that much easier.

Not real time cross play as in an Xbox players could play with a PC user, but you can share your CP, Collections, Crown store etc with your other account making it much easier to start again on another server.

Tsar_Gekkou · October 2020

I'd be fine if they could at least copy our gear and other items over. I accidentally deleted an item and asked to have it restored, and at first they accidentally put it on my empty PC account instead of my main Xbox one, so I know they could at least copy gear across platforms to make starting over a lot easier instead of having to refarm all of our old drops for a year or two. I'd be fine with grinding back to 810 if all my gear came with me.

ArchMikem · October 2020

Trevore wrote: »

When Xbox Series X and PS4 release, there's going to be an option to upgrade your account to those consoles. This was confirmed by ZOS. Although I'm not sure if this counts as another account transfer, but this kind of does give evidence that they are still considering cross play, so I guess there's still hopes for it?

It wont be a transfer. The new consoles are new hardware, not platforms. Its purely a visual upgrade.

PrimusNephilim · October 2020

They're firm on this issue, they have no plans to allow account transfers.

PS4 -> XSX ESO Account due to Microsoft's Acquisition

Danikat · October 2020

Doesn't Microsoft have some system where you can run Xbox games on a PC? (And possibly the same in reverse?) Maybe they could use that for ESO?

It wouldn't be cross-play since you'd still be connecting to the same servers - so people with the Xbox version would still only play with other people with the Xbox version, but it would give you the option to play it on your PC instead if you wanted to. Like for example if you're away from home and bringing a laptop but don't want to bring your Xbox as well.

Trevore wrote: »

When Xbox Series X and PS4 release, there's going to be an option to upgrade your account to those consoles. This was confirmed by ZOS. Although I'm not sure if this counts as another account transfer, but this kind of does give evidence that they are still considering cross play, so I guess there's still hopes for it?

That will only allow for 'direct' upgrades. For example if you currently play on PS4 you'll be able to use your current account and copy of the game on PS5, but if you're getting an Xbox X instead you'd have to start over. (Same for Xbox players moving to PS5.)

That works because the PS5 and Xbox X versions will use the existing PS4 and Xbox One servers, so for ZOS there's no change. It's the same as if someone playing the PC version buys a new machine with a better graphics card and processor. They're playing on upgraded hardware, but they're still using the same version of the game and connecting to the same servers.

BleedMe_AnOcean · October 2020

I could be wrong about this as I can only go by what I've been told by others, but apparently,
Sony has been the biggest hurdle for cross-platform play for years.

FFXIV does it, though, so I know it's possible.

Norgh · October 2020

Going forward and once the deal is complete anything like this would be better brought up with Microsoft, That way Microsoft can tell ZOS to implement something and it would get done rather than ZOS having to request a change.

hadrond · October 2020

BleedMe_AnOcean wrote: »

I could be wrong about this as I can only go by what I've been told by others, but apparently,
Sony has been the biggest hurdle for cross-platform play for years.

FFXIV does it, though, so I know it's possible.

may it's possible, but remember that playstation is always difficult everything that has to do with cross-play or cross-save. is just to take a look to minecraft, it take years to make crossplay and even now is limited.

Tandor · October 2020

These issues aren't just down to technical difficulties, or the time and cost involved in setting up a system, there's also the contractural aspect. It's unlikely that either Sony or Microsoft entered into contracts with ZOS that would allow ZOS to transfer customers away from those providers, nor would ZOS have any reason to transfer PC customers to console.

trackdemon5512 · October 2020

Crossplay for this game just isn’t coming and frankly should not be wanted. The disparities between platforms as a result of add-ons, system performance, and complications from processing huge populations would make the game an absolute mess.

As for cross save, that’s a different matter but also a headache for developers as it’s constantly checking a ton of information across physically separate servers which is really quite impractical.

I don’t see any changes coming as the current system is fine and populations are strong and stable.

ArchMikem · October 2020

BleedMe_AnOcean wrote: »

I could be wrong about this as I can only go by what I've been told by others, but apparently,
Sony has been the biggest hurdle for cross-platform play for years.

FFXIV does it, though, so I know it's possible.

War thunder does it as well. PC and Xbox users get matched together.

hadrond · October 2020

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

Crossplay for this game just isn’t coming and frankly should not be wanted. The disparities between platforms as a result of add-ons, system performance, and complications from processing huge populations would make the game an absolute mess.

As for cross save, that’s a different matter but also a headache for developers as it’s constantly checking a ton of information across physically separate servers which is really quite impractical.

I don’t see any changes coming as the current system is fine and populations are strong and stable.

i know that the add-ons makes the game easier to pc players, but i dont know if cross-play is not wanted.
anyone have done a study about crossplay.
obviusly make a cross system is a headache for the developlers, but everything it is in a game with bugs that in a game with bugs that have bugs since the begging and still are.

I just want zenimax to create a survey on what players want and listen to their players, instead of just constantly releasing new content and threatening players that they will lose their account for taking advantage of the exploits notorious

zaria · October 2020

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

Crossplay for this game just isn’t coming and frankly should not be wanted. The disparities between platforms as a result of add-ons, system performance, and complications from processing huge populations would make the game an absolute mess.

As for cross save, that’s a different matter but also a headache for developers as it’s constantly checking a ton of information across physically separate servers which is really quite impractical.

I don’t see any changes coming as the current system is fine and populations are strong and stable.

Main problem is not platform differences but that ESO is not an lobby game like war thunder, its an MMO on megaservers, that is each zone is a server or multiple virtual ones.
Services like dungeon finder is shared and it works so well, especially with high stress like the last dungeon dlc

With more players it will get more stressed.

Xebov · October 2020

Sealish wrote: »

So Microsoft is pretty good with pushing for Crossplay and stuff.
I can easily see the issues with Crossplay for this game because of the competitive edge PCs have over Consoles and because of Guilds/Guild Traders.

What WOULD be cool though is if they allowed you to play your account on other platforms provided you owned the same level of access on both platforms. Guilds would be platform independent, but if you could load up your character and play on any platform it would be really nice. Other than having a separate guild list for every platform I don't see this having any issue. Maybe in the two weeks between a PC and Console release for an expansion you would be locked to PC if you load into it... but that can easily be fixed by changing the two week policy.

This would also make a lot of sense for ZOS to allow from a business perspective too. ESO Plus and anything bought with crowns would be account wide and would be active on all platforms, but the base game and any chapters that require real money purchase people would have to re-buy on every platform that they want to play on (except maybe if the game gets added to Game Pass... then PC and Xbox would be covered but PS would still need to buy them) just like any game.

I can easily see a lot of people buying the game for more than one platform, especially with the new console generation coming up. Now would be the perfect time to implement something like this so that people going from PS to Xbox or vice versa could keep using their same account on their new platform.

There are several issues here:

Crossplay, that you describe, needs all clients to work on the same version. You always have a 1-2 week gap, not only to big updates but also to patches.
Besides that every plattform and every region has its own database which is currently 6. Given that you get duplicate entries for character names, account names and so on it becomes very complicated to merge it and its costly to keep these databases in sync afterwards.
About the buisness perspective. It makes no sense at all. The problem is that console players are also customers to their respective console developer. For everything sold they get a cut. Now if everything would be merged you could buy it however you want, but the console guys still want money. Thats a complicated contract matter to solve. And yes this also includes the XBox division even if the company is owned by Microsoft. The same is also true for switching consoles.

Stuff sounds very easy, but in the end every party wants money and adding this feature also costs money and will likely not return any.