We’d like to give you all an update on the current and future status of gifting.

As many of you are aware, we recently removed the ability to gift items from the Crown Store to other players. We did not make this decision lightly and knew it would be unpopular. However, it was necessary to address a rapidly growing issue of “bad actors” using various fraudulent means to amass crowns without paying for them, then using them in turn to sell Crown Store items to players for cash. This is not a new problem in online games but one that requires adaptation and adjustment from time to time to react as new methods come up for illicit users to gain access to “free” currency and items that can be sold for profit.

ZeniMax and The Elder Scrolls Online do not support third party websites and “purchasing” Crown Store items from these sites might mean unwittingly participating in this black market with the associated risks. At this time, we do not plan to take action against any accounts that purchased from these sites prior to the decision to disable gifting.

We recognize that many of you do not use Crown Store gifting in the manner described above and we know that you are frustrated with us. Users of (normal) gifting are among our most passionate, dedicated members of the community and unfortunately, disabling gifting for everyone was the quickest and most efficient solution to protect players while we work on updating the process.

That said, we are working on a solution that will allow us to re-enable gifting so it will fill its normal function, while better protecting the system from outside bad actors. While we can’t go into the details just yet, we hope to be back in the near future with an updated timeline and plan to share.