PC players only - Do you play ESO through Steam?

h9dlb · August 2022

Yes

Steam it's easier to log in

I should add this is a flawed sample survey because steam players are more likely to use the ESO steam forum than this official forum plus the many forum users that have been banned in the last year. Also ESO Reddit is probably used more now than this official forum

jcaceresw · August 2022

Yes

I suggest you to buy the game from the ESO store instead and maybe link to STEAM afterwards (haven't done that and not sure if that is allowed by STEAM). In the last sale I bought several copies from the ESO store and now I am able to play with multiple instances of the game just by executing ESO64.exe multiple times. Had I bought them from STEAM I would not be able to do that (have around 5 more alt accounts from there) because STEAM restricts game login as long you have logged on your STEAM account previously.

Memory_In_Motion · August 2022

Yes

i purchased this game through steam on july 31st as ZOS plainly states on their webpage they are 'sunsetting' the zos installer in favor of the steam one. soon the answer to this question will be yes for everyone.

opalcity · August 2022

No

This poll is only going to tell you how many people who regularly interact with this forum do or don't use steam.

newtinmpls · August 2022

No

I do have it loaded through Steam and that is linked to one of my three accounts; but it's more annoying to use, so I just use the launch Icon for all of my accounts.

Carcamongus · August 2022

No

Steam is practical, but I use it only for single-player games. I bought ESO before it could be played on that platform and, considering how clunky Steam felt to me and several cases of people being unable to log through there, I've never had any intention of switching over to it.

Memory_In_Motion wrote: »

i purchased this game through steam on july 31st as ZOS plainly states on their webpage they are 'sunsetting' the zos installer in favor of the steam one. soon the answer to this question will be yes for everyone.

They were going to retire the Bethesda launcher in May and the FAQ even stated ESO wouldn't be affected, since it doesn't use that.

Tandor · August 2022

No

Memory_In_Motion wrote: »

i purchased this game through steam on july 31st as ZOS plainly states on their webpage they are 'sunsetting' the zos installer in favor of the steam one. soon the answer to this question will be yes for everyone.

I suspect you're referring to the Bethesda launcher, rather than the ZOS ESO launcher which is not affected by the change. From the ESO website Support section:-

"WILL THE BETHESDA.NET LAUNCHER SUNSET AFFECT MY ABILITY TO PLAY THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE ON PC?
Updated 04/25/2022 10:55 AM

No. The Elder Scrolls Online is unaffected by this change."

James-Wayne · August 2022

No

Played since beta so no, I prefer own launcher anyway less hassles

Memory_In_Motion · August 2022

Yes

Tandor wrote: »

Memory_In_Motion wrote: »

i purchased this game through steam on july 31st as ZOS plainly states on their webpage they are 'sunsetting' the zos installer in favor of the steam one. soon the answer to this question will be yes for everyone.

I suspect you're referring to the Bethesda launcher, rather than the ZOS ESO launcher which is not affected by the change. From the ESO website Support section:-

"WILL THE BETHESDA.NET LAUNCHER SUNSET AFFECT MY ABILITY TO PLAY THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE ON PC?
Updated 04/25/2022 10:55 AM

No. The Elder Scrolls Online is unaffected by this change."

Carcamongus wrote: »

Steam is practical, but I use it only for single-player games. I bought ESO before it could be played on that platform and, considering how clunky Steam felt to me and several cases of people being unable to log through there, I've never had any intention of switching over to it.

Memory_In_Motion wrote: »

i purchased this game through steam on july 31st as ZOS plainly states on their webpage they are 'sunsetting' the zos installer in favor of the steam one. soon the answer to this question will be yes for everyone.

They were going to retire the Bethesda launcher in May and the FAQ even stated ESO wouldn't be affected, since it doesn't use that.

Thanks for the clarification. What i read affected my purchase option because it looked like everyone would be switching to steam anyway...

Gankform · August 2022

Yes

as it seems there are not only few players who use steam...37% it is not insignificant number

TiaFrye · August 2022

Yes

I've migrated to Steam earlier this year because reasons and I kinda dig it now. Client logging you in on itself is super useful. I even don't mind 2 versions installed at the same time.

Zodiarkslayer · August 2022

Yes

I buy everything games related via Steam, because I can pay cash for it. It cannot be traced or referanced to any of my bank accounts. That is a huge plus for me.

AinSoph · August 2022

No

I have ESO through steam but I use the .exe because the launcher for whatever reason doesn't disappear on game launch when literally every other game does.

maximusrex45 · August 2022

No

I might if I didn't have to buy it again on Steam. Not that I have to do it a lot, but Steam makes setting up a new PC much easier.

Tandor · August 2022

No

Modzcs wrote: »

as it seems there are not only few players who use steam...37% it is not insignificant number

Well, if you're going to rely on a forum poll, I would counter with the suggestion that 158 players is indeed only a few in the context of a MMO. Indeed, I might be tempted to add that it is a very insignificant number indeed

!

jcaceresw · August 2022

Yes

Tandor wrote: »

Memory_In_Motion wrote: »

i purchased this game through steam on july 31st as ZOS plainly states on their webpage they are 'sunsetting' the zos installer in favor of the steam one. soon the answer to this question will be yes for everyone.

I suspect you're referring to the Bethesda launcher, rather than the ZOS ESO launcher which is not affected by the change. From the ESO website Support section:-

"WILL THE BETHESDA.NET LAUNCHER SUNSET AFFECT MY ABILITY TO PLAY THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE ON PC?
Updated 04/25/2022 10:55 AM

No. The Elder Scrolls Online is unaffected by this change."

Good to know. I was thinking I have wasted my money buying directly from the ESO store just for the ability to log into multiple accounts without the restrictions STEAM imposes.

Mesite · August 2022

Yes

Both. Bought on CDs first, then linked one to steam later which is where I buy crowns and chapters. I use steam cards. Steam doesn't ask for credit card details so if someone hacks it then they don't get my financial details

Last week's patch killed my use of the ZOS launcher. The launcher refused to go past 21% but steam updated straight away. I ran out of disc space so I can currently only use the Steam version.

hiyde · August 2022

Yes

That's a LOT higher than I thought it would be. I was thinking single digit percentages.

If 37% is anywhere near true (or heck even half true), that gives up or down trends on steamcharts more weight when it comes to PC player's activity. Interesing.

Ragnarok0130 · August 2022

Yes

JKorr wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

jedtb16_ESO wrote: »

no. why would i?

That is what I thought too, but someone mentioned in another thread that most PC players play ESO through Steam, so I was curious if it was really that popular.

Anyone who started back at the beginning might not bother to play through Steam. In the beginning, it was NOT available through Steam. Then when it was, there were issues that occurred, where Steam players couldn't log in, but the people playing without Steam had no problems. I do use Steam for other games, but not ESO.

I swapped to Steam from the ZoS client that I used since beta at the very first opportunity when it came to Steam. I've never had problems with Steam, all of my account entitlements are present in game regardless of which platform I play them on, and on the very rare occasion that Steam is down you can launch the executable without Steam from the Steam folder and log in manually like you do on the ZoS client and still play. There is literally no downside for me playing from Steam and a large benefit making it easier to buy crowns when I need to via Steam. I recommend it for anyone who has a Steam account, especially when you can pick it up for $5 on sale.

Ragnarok0130 · August 2022

Yes

corrosivechains wrote: »

I play through steam because it makes purchasing everything much easier for me....but it's pretty frustrating that I HAVE to launch the game through Steam since linking my accounts and purchasing the different upgrades. Though rare, there are times where Steam DOES go down and then I can't launch the game until it's able to reconnect

@corrosivechains you can launch the ESO launcher executable from the steam folder when Steam goes down and it brings up the ZoS launcher that makes you do a manual login. I launched ESO this week just a few weeks ago when Steam was down.

SPR_of_HA_community · August 2022

Yes

Steam version is easy to log in.
The same time we can play not using it.
(Have both options but use steam for easy log in)

SPR_of_HA_community · August 2022

Yes

SilverBride wrote: »

This came up in another thread and I am curious about how many PC players use Steam to play ESO. Yes and no are all that is needed for this poll, but feel free to elaborate if you wish.

Only old and more active player usually are represented on forums. So real numbers can be even more close to Steam users.

The same time some players can have Alts for craft quests as example. It is much harder to use Steam for this, so account numbers of Steam and not steam players can be like 10+ not steam players to 1 steam player.

ToRelax · August 2022

hiyde wrote: »

That's a LOT higher than I thought it would be. I was thinking single digit percentages.

If 37% is anywhere near true (or heck even half true), that gives up or down trends on steamcharts more weight when it comes to PC player's activity. Interesing.

There have been a number of polls on this on this forum over the years, with numbers going up steadily. A new poll could be interesting, but this one is just going to get more and more skewed because it's a year old.

Elsonso · August 2022

No

hiyde wrote: »

That's a LOT higher than I thought it would be. I was thinking single digit percentages.

I was thinking it would be in the low percentage range, too. Surprising.

SilverBride · August 2022

No

ToRelax wrote: »

hiyde wrote: »

That's a LOT higher than I thought it would be. I was thinking single digit percentages.

If 37% is anywhere near true (or heck even half true), that gives up or down trends on steamcharts more weight when it comes to PC player's activity. Interesing.

There have been a number of polls on this on this forum over the years, with numbers going up steadily. A new poll could be interesting, but this one is just going to get more and more skewed because it's a year old.

I agree. I think a new poll would be more accurate since some of the votes are over a year old.

Kingsindarkness · August 2022

No

I tried once and it was terrible...

I have a pretty Beefy machine

12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-12900K (CPU:0)
MSI pro Z690 MB
32 MB DDR5 (4800 MHz)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti

And the performance was like I was using an old Pentium II...so never again.

It's why I don't understand all the "look the steam population has dropped the game!!!....she's dead!!!!!" nonsense

OsUfi · August 2022

Yes

Yes. Steam Proton lets me play ESO on Linux.

KappaKid83 · August 2022

No

I used to play through steam but after a few months I realize the Bethesda launcher was just a better launch experience than launching through Steam.

r3play81 · August 2022

No

Nope, absolutely no benefit from doing so, its not even faster to launch.