twisttop138 wrote: »

Well there you go guys. Matt Firor on the podcast said they were working on the underlying tech for cross play and they want it. They know it's important and they're working on it.

Edit. Kinda funny podcast ESO limited series, today's episode of just a few hours ago. Probably around the 20 minute area, if you would like to check it out for yourself. I was actually surprised to hear them speak so bluntly about it. No real spin or politician speak. Just upfront.

Well butter my biscuits and call me late for breakfast!

https://youtu.be/ADaBPspkAL8?si=puEpt2QR9t8Yv_3a

I don't seem to be able to embed the time, but the relevant part is at 24:51.

twisttop138 wrote: »

Well there you go guys. Matt Firor on the podcast said they were working on the underlying tech for cross play and they want it. They know it's important and they're working on it.

Edit. Kinda funny podcast ESO limited series, today's episode of just a few hours ago. Probably around the 20 minute area, if you would like to check it out for yourself. I was actually surprised to hear them speak so bluntly about it. No real spin or politician speak. Just upfront.

I have seen this and it made me so happy!!!

Arround 25 min

https://youtu.be/ADaBPspkAL8?si=zZvzSdIfBB2ZI5zQ

alternatelder wrote: »

twisttop138 wrote: »

Well there you go guys. Matt Firor on the podcast said they were working on the underlying tech for cross play and they want it. They know it's important and they're working on it.

Edit. Kinda funny podcast ESO limited series, today's episode of just a few hours ago. Probably around the 20 minute area, if you would like to check it out for yourself. I was actually surprised to hear them speak so bluntly about it. No real spin or politician speak. Just upfront.

For those that don't want to watch it he basically says "We are working on tech to see IF we can do it." Don't give people hope based on this...🙄

Definitely reason for hope after this. It's the most candid they've ever been. I will say I don't have a dog in this fight. I would love cross play but if it didn't happen it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me, but to hear them talk about this in such an open way. "We want this" That's exciting.

Soo exciting!! I cant wait and hope we hear about this soon.

SerafinaWaterstar wrote: »

I play PS EU both pve & pvp and just don’t agree with a lot of the posts here about population or the situation on that server.

As I said before, posting random pictures of bars in Cyro does not prove anything. One of the last ones was for 2pm on a Thursday - a time when a lot of players are at work!

Yes, there indeed may be a reduction in active players - but to repeat myself, have actually seen more new names in pvp recently. And in pve active guilds.

I am ambivalent to negative about cross play. I think it will not be the panacea some think, and may cause other issues (as have been pointed out in other threads, even with some add ons on console, pc players will still have quite a big advantage in game play/dps). It might have a significant affect on endgame trials on PS - now that is an area that could do with more players but its nothing to do with population!

You’re absolutely entitled to your opinion, but I believe it’s incorrect — and multiple screenshots have been shared to support that perspective, which you’ve chosen to dismiss by saying “it doesn’t prove anything.” That’s fair if that’s how you see it, but it just shows that your point of view differs.

The key issue is that other servers aren’t empty at 2 PM. Yes, people are working, and I’m aware of that. But on other servers, there’s still visible activity during these hours. Not everyone works at the same time, and with a larger player base, there’s a greater chance of encountering people outside of prime time. That’s exactly why crossplay is important.

At the end of the day, you’re free to believe whatever you like. And if the low population on PS EU hasn’t affected your experience, then that’s great for you.

But crossplay wouldn’t harm your experience — and it also doesn’t automatically mean merging with PC. ZOS hasn’t specified anything in detail yet. That’s another part of this discussion that’s been brought up by several people, suggesting that simply merging the console servers would already be a step in the right direction — something you’ve also chosen not to address.


And about your last sentence. Yes it all has to do with population, the population is bad and crossplay would fix it and i really cant wait for it to happen 🤞

There is always some people deciding to close their eyes to what is happening in front of them. I play xbox eu and ps eu and both servers are empty as hell outside of events or weekends.

Crossplay is just a bandaid. People are leaving and will continue to leave. Here are some of my thoughts (I wanted to break them into bullet points, but they ended up more like chains of logic):

Almost all content in this game is strictly one-and-done. You clear a zone — and that’s it. Done. What this game really needs is a solid time-killer. But Infinite Archive? That’s a failure. If you want to keep playing, you have to move into group content. But normals are way too easy, even for a casual player. And players outgrow veteran content pretty quickly, because it’s designed for people who have merely "figured out" the game, not mastered it.

To go further, you have to start putting in effort — grind gear, improve your skill, etc. It’s a kind of Rubicon. And even if you don’t quit at that point, things only get harder from there. You need to find core groups in Discord. You need to find people who are actually good if you want to clear the new dungeons on hard modes. And honestly… for me, that’s much harder than hitting 110k+ DPS on a trial dummy. I’ve been without a core group for over two years now…

Toxic casualness.
I’m tired of hearing, “Only 0.00001% of players do vet content, so it doesn’t matter. Give us more hairstyles for companions instead.”
Look — this game had a massive playerbase. What is it now, 30 million original accounts? And yet during prime time on Steam, the player count barely scrapes 16k. Sure, not everyone plays through Steam. But if Steam shows 16k, how many are playing total? 40k? 50k? For 30 million accounts?
Now divide that across all the servers…

Rungar wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Crossplay is just a bandaid. People are leaving and will continue to leave. Here are some of my thoughts (I wanted to break them into bullet points, but they ended up more like chains of logic):

Almost all content in this game is strictly one-and-done. You clear a zone — and that’s it. Done. What this game really needs is a solid time-killer. But Infinite Archive? That’s a failure. If you want to keep playing, you have to move into group content. But normals are way too easy, even for a casual player. And players outgrow veteran content pretty quickly, because it’s designed for people who have merely "figured out" the game, not mastered it.

To go further, you have to start putting in effort — grind gear, improve your skill, etc. It’s a kind of Rubicon. And even if you don’t quit at that point, things only get harder from there. You need to find core groups in Discord. You need to find people who are actually good if you want to clear the new dungeons on hard modes. And honestly… for me, that’s much harder than hitting 110k+ DPS on a trial dummy. I’ve been without a core group for over two years now…

Toxic casualness.
I’m tired of hearing, “Only 0.00001% of players do vet content, so it doesn’t matter. Give us more hairstyles for companions instead.”
Look — this game had a massive playerbase. What is it now, 30 million original accounts? And yet during prime time on Steam, the player count barely scrapes 16k. Sure, not everyone plays through Steam. But if Steam shows 16k, how many are playing total? 40k? 50k? For 30 million accounts?
Now divide that across all the servers…

this is why its so important to have achievement based npc guilds in the game representing the different content types. You need to be able to find people in your lane ( content wise and general skill level wise)and eso does an abysmal job of this even though they have all the bones necessary for a great system ( achievements, chats, npc guild base structure). If you dont find them youll stop playing shortly after and zos lets all this be decided by the groupfinder and player guilds. lol They hate money! Or so it seems.

Oh hey that actually is a good idea. Layer it atop the player guilds but let people's "Undaunted" rank or "Alliance Rank" affect who they get grouped with - or, dammit, I lost the plot but was really excited.

Rungar wrote: »

ragnarok6644b14_ESO wrote: »

Rungar wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Crossplay is just a bandaid. People are leaving and will continue to leave. Here are some of my thoughts (I wanted to break them into bullet points, but they ended up more like chains of logic):

Almost all content in this game is strictly one-and-done. You clear a zone — and that’s it. Done. What this game really needs is a solid time-killer. But Infinite Archive? That’s a failure. If you want to keep playing, you have to move into group content. But normals are way too easy, even for a casual player. And players outgrow veteran content pretty quickly, because it’s designed for people who have merely "figured out" the game, not mastered it.

To go further, you have to start putting in effort — grind gear, improve your skill, etc. It’s a kind of Rubicon. And even if you don’t quit at that point, things only get harder from there. You need to find core groups in Discord. You need to find people who are actually good if you want to clear the new dungeons on hard modes. And honestly… for me, that’s much harder than hitting 110k+ DPS on a trial dummy. I’ve been without a core group for over two years now…

Toxic casualness.
I’m tired of hearing, “Only 0.00001% of players do vet content, so it doesn’t matter. Give us more hairstyles for companions instead.”
Look — this game had a massive playerbase. What is it now, 30 million original accounts? And yet during prime time on Steam, the player count barely scrapes 16k. Sure, not everyone plays through Steam. But if Steam shows 16k, how many are playing total? 40k? 50k? For 30 million accounts?
Now divide that across all the servers…

this is why its so important to have achievement based npc guilds in the game representing the different content types. You need to be able to find people in your lane ( content wise and general skill level wise)and eso does an abysmal job of this even though they have all the bones necessary for a great system ( achievements, chats, npc guild base structure). If you dont find them youll stop playing shortly after and zos lets all this be decided by the groupfinder and player guilds. lol They hate money! Or so it seems.

Oh hey that actually is a good idea. Layer it atop the player guilds but let people's "Undaunted" rank or "Alliance Rank" affect who they get grouped with - or, dammit, I lost the plot but was really excited.

lol the idea is that your achievements unlock chats for a particular guild for specific content. So the more achievements you have the better chats you have to access other players like yourself for that content. So if your looking for a group for a dungeon, people in the undaunted guild chat "you" have access to will likely be a decent match for you. Low tech and no groupfinder necessary. The bad matches for you will be in other chats above or below you. Since its achievement based and you actually have to complete the content to access the chats it should work itself out. It doesnt just apply to dungeons though.. can apply to any activity in the game if theres as guild representing that activity and the activity has achievements. ESO is just naturally designed for it since a number of npc guilds already exist and the achievement system is fleshed out.

zos doesnt seem to realize this is where the game ends for most people. Its a critical control point because the combat system is difficult to learn and because of this its hard to find the right people to do things with. The dungeon design doesnt help either. Too much mechanics, not enough adventure. The player guilds and groupfinder aren't getting it done. There your matched with people but not necessarily the right ones. A couple poor experiences with the goupfinder or player guilds and its game over.

I think this is a really insightful breakdown, and I totally agree that achievements as a gating mechanism for content-specific chats or matchmaking is a brilliant idea. ESO’s community-driven systems are already robust, but they’re often undermined by friction in finding like-minded or similarly-skilled players. Adding an achievement-based chat layer—like having tiered access to guild or activity-specific channels based on your actual progression—could go a long way in addressing that.

What excites me even more is how this could tie directly into crossplay, if ZOS ever leans into that possibility. Imagine if your Undaunted achievements or PvP rankings could bridge platforms and drop you into chats filled with others at your level, regardless of whether they’re on PC, Xbox, or PlayStation. It wouldn’t just help group content—it would also begin to normalize a more skill-aligned, purpose-driven matchmaking system across the entire player base.

Right now, you’re spot on—player guilds are hit or miss, and the groupfinder is unreliable. That’s not a knock on the community, but more on the tools we’re given to navigate it. ESO has always leaned into organic interaction and exploration, but in endgame and more demanding content, that philosophy just doesn’t cut it. Achievement-based chat gating is low-tech, like you said, but elegant. It promotes progression without being toxic and lets people organically seek out others on a similar path. It could even revive niche activities like master writ crafting, antiquities, or trial score runs if paired with NPC factions or guilds.

And again, if ZOS ever pushes crossplay, ideas like this become even more vital. There has to be an intelligent system behind the scenes helping to funnel the right players together, or the cross-platform benefit becomes diluted by chaos.

This is the kind of layered system that gives long-term players more value out of their time while giving new players an aspirational roadmap—“Complete this dungeon and you unlock this chat channel” is a lot more motivating than just earning some dye or title. It gives purpose, and ESO really thrives when it gives players purpose beyond just the loot loop.

fizzylu wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Almost all content in this game is strictly one-and-done. You clear a zone — and that’s it. Done. What this game really needs is a solid time-killer. But Infinite Archive? That’s a failure. If you want to keep playing, you have to move into group content. But normals are way too easy, even for a casual player. And players outgrow veteran content pretty quickly, because it’s designed for people who have merely "figured out" the game, not mastered it.

This game also simply lacks a replayability aspect when it comes to endgame PvE content compared to other MMOs.... most have far better gameplay cycles, progression, and features built around their dungeons, raids/trials, and etc. But I'd also argue that PvP was/is supposed to be a big part of the endgame in ESO, yet Zenimax doesn't seem to try to keep it's PvP players but instead chase them away.
Excluding U35 hitting PvE players hard causing many to stop playing the game, the really big drop-offs that I have seen in my time in ESO are mainly on the PvP side.

You make some valid points about ESO’s endgame and PvP issues, but this thread’s about crossplay—something that could actually help with a lot of the problems you’re mentioning. Shared populations could breathe life into both PvE and PvP communities, especially in underpopulated areas. Maybe let’s keep the focus here and save the deeper content critiques for a more relevant thread?

amiiegee wrote: »

You make some valid points about ESO’s endgame and PvP issues, but this thread’s about crossplay—something that could actually help with a lot of the problems you’re mentioning. Shared populations could breathe life into both PvE and PvP communities, especially in underpopulated areas. Maybe let’s keep the focus here and save the deeper content critiques for a more relevant thread?

Huh? Correct me if I'm wrong.... but this thread has been around for a hot minute, and many people have touched upon subjects and made replies not directly referencing crossplay. Also note; I didn't even say anything against crossplay.... so some may say I'm confused for not knowing why you seem to have an attitude in response to me simply stating my opinion and the fact that endgame is an overall issue for this games longevity, and PvP WAS and IS supposed to be a big factor of that. And yes, it is a fact that the PvP crowd has taken the biggest hits. Why ignore information and label it as irrelevant to why crossplay even feels necessary? Like what toe of yours did I step on really? And who are you to tell me what I can discuss in relation to this topic when I was directly responding to SOMEONE ELSE.

i think that so many people have either tried or know about elder scrolls now that in order to get new blood to the game they need to change some gameplay systems.

-achievement based npc guilds for a better grouping experience is an easy one
-optional single bar alternative setup is another easy one
-dungeon redesign using existing assets but a new format ( non linear)
-cp redesign simplification to pvp friendly damage/armor type specializations
- unified advancement system that incorporates achievements

ideally all this in one patch.

crossplay isnt going to change much because the way the megaserver works and these people are already playing the game so its low value to zos when they need new paying customers.

amiiegee wrote: »

Hey, just to clarify—there was no attitude intended in my comment at all. I wasn’t trying to shut down your opinion or say you can’t share it. I only meant that it might help to tie it back to crossplay since that’s the core of this thread. I actually agree with a lot of what you said, especially about PvP taking the biggest hit and the importance of endgame content. My point was just that crossplay could help with those exact issues, not that your post didn’t belong here. No offense meant

Like I said, I was replying to a very specific post and a very specific part of said post on the thread which is why I didn't specifically mention crossplay. And either way, very odd to single my reply out when there are many others that didn't as well and it's not like this is my first time posting on this thread either. But if I MUST include crossplay in my replies:

I agree with Parasaurolophus that crossplay is a bandaid, and would probably be a very poorly applied one in the case of ESO. It's not some simple flick of a switch, and considering Zenimax struggles to maintain the current state of the servers and it's code, I cannot imagine how they'd even manage to smoothly incorporate crossplay into the game while also keeping up with regular updates and maintenance. And what would this do for PC that also has a dwindling playerbase as this thread is TECHNICALLY about crossplay for console only, and apparently we are really getting hung up about the specifics of an almost year old thread?

I mean, if they want to finally acknowledge these 45+ pages and give it a go, I'm not going to oppose it.... but I'd much rather them focus on creating/expanding actual content that keeps players playing, draws those that left back in, and brings in new ones that can actually find that it's worth sticking around.
Like maybe it's just me.... but I'd rather not play a MMO that consists of a multiplatform yet still relatively small playerbase that is made up of only the players that would never quit no matter how bad it gets.

Rungar wrote: »

cuddles_with_wroble wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Crossplay is just a bandaid. People are leaving and will continue to leave. Here are some of my thoughts (I wanted to break them into bullet points, but they ended up more like chains of logic):

Almost all content in this game is strictly one-and-done. You clear a zone — and that’s it. Done. What this game really needs is a solid time-killer. But Infinite Archive? That’s a failure. If you want to keep playing, you have to move into group content. But normals are way too easy, even for a casual player. And players outgrow veteran content pretty quickly, because it’s designed for people who have merely "figured out" the game, not mastered it.

To go further, you have to start putting in effort — grind gear, improve your skill, etc. It’s a kind of Rubicon. And even if you don’t quit at that point, things only get harder from there. You need to find core groups in Discord. You need to find people who are actually good if you want to clear the new dungeons on hard modes. And honestly… for me, that’s much harder than hitting 110k+ DPS on a trial dummy. I’ve been without a core group for over two years now…

Toxic casualness.
I’m tired of hearing, “Only 0.00001% of players do vet content, so it doesn’t matter. Give us more hairstyles for companions instead.”
Look — this game had a massive playerbase. What is it now, 30 million original accounts? And yet during prime time on Steam, the player count barely scrapes 16k. Sure, not everyone plays through Steam. But if Steam shows 16k, how many are playing total? 40k? 50k? For 30 million accounts?
Now divide that across all the servers…

Well said! Something I’ll add as a someone who has cleared vet hm content is that imo the design and mechanics of vet hm are often not very fun, most mechanics are either cheesy 1 shots or minor inconveniences that cease to exist if your group has high enough damage. I do wish there was more interesting and group based mechs but sadly most fights are designed to be parse simulators

I think this is another reason that pve does t feel very repeatable, the dungeon and trial fights don’t really give me that rewarding feeling after I clear a trifecta since most mechanics are just rng and there isn’t really a whole lot of true skill or problem solving involved in clearing. Most fights the solution is just “do more damage” bcs if you can burn the boss than whatever combination of mechs it has don’t even matter. I almost never feel forced to truly engage with a fight or even learn what a boss or enemy does unless said attack 1 shots me

The amount of dungeons that can wipe your group purely through bad rng of boss attacks timed together is at least 70% of them, and that’s not even mentioning that almost every DoT effect on vet hm is severely overturned and nearly instantly kills anyone who’s not a tank and zos loves their aoe ground dots in the dlc dungeons…

ive told them for many years their dungeon experience was bad and way to raid-like with too much mechanics and not enough adventure. People usually quit when they start doing the dungeons imo. It could be so much better but zos is very slow to adapt. I dont have much hope for their next game. They just dont have the vision and mediocrity is the cost of that.

I totally get the frustration with current vet HM dungeon design. It often feels like it’s more about checking boxes on a parse sheet than offering dynamic, engaging content. Mechanics that either one-shot you or don’t matter at all depending on your group’s DPS really kill any sense of progression or strategy.

That said, I think crossplay could actually help alleviate some of these issues — not by fixing the mechanics themselves, but by expanding the player pool. With more players to group with across platforms, we’d see a broader range of team compositions, skill levels, and possibly more community-driven experimentation. That could push ZOS to consider more varied and adaptable mechanics in dungeon content, rather than designing solely for the top 1% of organized groups.

More importantly, crossplay could revitalize dungeon content for casual and mid-core players, who often drop off due to the limited grouping options and steep vet learning curve. It won’t solve the design flaws directly, but it might create more breathing room for players to engage at their own pace — and that could lead to more constructive feedback and retention.

Still, you’re right — ZOS needs to rethink how they approach PvE design if they want people to stick around. Crossplay is just one piece of the puzzle, but a very necessary one at this stage.

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Crossplay is just a bandaid. People are leaving and will continue to leave. Here are some of my thoughts (I wanted to break them into bullet points, but they ended up more like chains of logic):

Almost all content in this game is strictly one-and-done. You clear a zone — and that’s it. Done. What this game really needs is a solid time-killer. But Infinite Archive? That’s a failure. If you want to keep playing, you have to move into group content. But normals are way too easy, even for a casual player. And players outgrow veteran content pretty quickly, because it’s designed for people who have merely "figured out" the game, not mastered it.

To go further, you have to start putting in effort — grind gear, improve your skill, etc. It’s a kind of Rubicon. And even if you don’t quit at that point, things only get harder from there. You need to find core groups in Discord. You need to find people who are actually good if you want to clear the new dungeons on hard modes. And honestly… for me, that’s much harder than hitting 110k+ DPS on a trial dummy. I’ve been without a core group for over two years now…

Toxic casualness.
I’m tired of hearing, “Only 0.00001% of players do vet content, so it doesn’t matter. Give us more hairstyles for companions instead.”
Look — this game had a massive playerbase. What is it now, 30 million original accounts? And yet during prime time on Steam, the player count barely scrapes 16k. Sure, not everyone plays through Steam. But if Steam shows 16k, how many are playing total? 40k? 50k? For 30 million accounts?
Now divide that across all the servers…

A case where a false belief gradually turns into reality through the actions of its believer.