A poll about crossplay

Old_Foggy · April 27

I know nothing about cross play and I'm not against it but maybe a little concerned about how it works. Will it mean Xbox and PlayStation players remain on their own current servers and somehow link to the PC servers in order to play or does it mean a server merge creating a new mega server with all players on the one maybe adding unwanted lag as it struggles to cope ? another concern is how will the market system cope or will they remain as they are?. Like I said I know nothing just wondering what the pros and cons might be when it's implemented. I just hope it does make ESO much better for everyone and not have us cussing it later.

FurryCandyHearts · April 27

Don't care

olda90 wrote: »

[snip]

LoL this is the state of ESO made by players that want this game to be dead, careful you might get reported if you think differently and point out your thoughts.

labeling people as antisocial sound s like name calling and baiting for a fight to me.
[edited to remove quote]

heimdall14_9 · April 27

No

frogthroat wrote: »

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

I don't believe the current infrastructure can handle this transition without severely damaging the player experience.

Please provide the technical analysis why you think combining server hardware will result in lower performance.

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

The Guild Trader Monopoly and Economic Collapse:

PCEU survived the disbandment of the largest trade alliance (multiple guilds) without much issues. The impact on prices were minimal. Where do you base that this would be such a big thing if the fall of the largest guild alliance had minimal effect? Do you actually play this game?

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

The Massive Advantage of PC Add-ons:

You don't play this game, do you? Consoles have addons.

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

Hardware, Latency, and "Input Power":

Sure, sure. You are absolutely right. Except with everything, but other than everything, you are right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gx3hVYfALM

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

Voice Chat vs. Text Chat Friction:

You have a mighty great storm in that teacup.

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

Asking the server architecture to suddenly handle the massive overhead of synchronizing different hardware protocols in real-time is a recipe for disaster. I don’t believe the game engine can handle the extra "weight" of crossplay without making the existing lag and performance issues significantly worse.

Where do you think the console server hardware goes? Do you think they throw it away?

Can you provide me with the technical papers you have read to show how combining the server hardwares will result in extra "weight" with crossplay?

Note: I used AI to help me structure and write out my thoughts for this post due to my disabilities.

To answer your question: Yes, I do play this game. I’ve been here since release day, I’m a 19x Emperor, and I currently manage 16 different accounts across both PC and PlayStation. My perspective isn't based on "teacup storms"—it’s based on over a decade of seeing how this game’s economy and performance actually function across different ecosystems.

On "Server Hardware":
It’s not as simple as "adding more hardware." Crossplay requires a massive synchronization layer to reconcile different network protocols from Sony, Microsoft, and PC. This isn't just about raw power; it's about the "overhead" of the server constantly checking for parity between a 144Hz PC and a 60Hz console in real-time combat. Given that we already see performance degradation during mid-year mayhem or in Cyrodiil on separate servers, adding that extra layer of complexity is a massive technical risk.

On the Trade Alliance Argument:
Comparing the disbanding of one trade alliance on PCEU to a full-scale platform merge is apples and oranges. When an alliance disbands, that gold stays within the same ecosystem. When you merge PC and Console, you are injecting a decade of PC-inflated gold and automated trading data into a console market that has never had to compete with those numbers. PC guilds have a massive head start in capital; they won’t just "participate" in the market, they will own the bidding process for the best locations by default.

On Voice Chat:
Dismissing the voice chat issue ignores the social reality of the platforms. Console players rely on the built-in area and group chat for everything from PUGs to social interactions. PC has never had this. Forcing a voice-integrated culture onto a text-heavy community—especially one as linguistically diverse as the EU server—is a recipe for massive social friction that Discord doesn't solve for the average solo-queruer.

I’m not saying more players is bad. I’m saying that after 11 years, the "foundational" differences between how we play on PC vs. Console are too deep to just "flip a switch" without causing more problems than it solves.

and PS I KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO FIGHT WITH WHAT I SAID BECAUSE IM USING AI TO HELP ME AND ITS SOMETHING YOU CAN ATTACK BUT AGAIN IVE PUT IM USING IT ITS WELL KNOWN THAT THE ESO COMMUNITY IS THE ONE THAT ASK I TRY USING IT TO BETTER PUT MY THOUGHTS INTO WORDS SO AT THIS POINT YOU ARE ATTACKING MY DISABILITY ..

valenwood_vegan · April 27

Don't care

Don't really care, but have some concerns about implementation and handling of issues such as duplicate names, economy and cultural differences between platforms, to name a couple (I'll let others who care more argue about that); and I don't like seeing a lot of dev time put into something that doesn't really add any content to the game and doesn't go toward fixing underlying problems that have driven players away.

I get that it's an expected feature these days and is probably a nice box for them to check, but if the game isn't fun and functional and filled with things to do and attracting new players, crossplay won't save it. And purely from a personal standpoint, it will do nothing to increase my interest in the game and the people I play with on PC generally feel either apathetic or concerned about the details of how crossplay will be implemented.

heimdall14_9 · April 27

No

alternatelder wrote: »

Silaf wrote: »

I'm worried it may increase the lag.

This is my concern. It doesn't matter that I have 600+mbs speed connections, it doesn't even matter for those that had 1gb fiber, there is lag everywhere that greatly affects my gameplay especially during combat. If this makes it even slightly laggier, the game is worse off than not having crossplay.

be on the other end of that stick and be the console play that gets that lag whos going to fell it most ???? and psn lags just as bad if not more than PC at times

BardokRedSnow · April 27

Yes

This lifecycle of the game needs it plain and simple, the Steam charts show that well enough despite comments about PCNA and PCEU population.

H3rBie · April 27

Yes but I have some concerns about it

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

and PS I KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO FIGHT WITH WHAT I SAID BECAUSE IM USING AI TO HELP ME AND ITS SOMETHING YOU CAN ATTACK BUT AGAIN IVE PUT IM USING IT ITS WELL KNOWN THAT THE ESO COMMUNITY IS THE ONE THAT ASK I TRY USING IT TO BETTER PUT MY THOUGHTS INTO WORDS SO AT THIS POINT YOU ARE ATTACKING MY DISABILITY ..

why? using ai is fine, I do it on my own many times because of english not beeing my native language

It's a lot easier and faster to translate and check instead of investing hours to find the correct wording

heimdall14_9 · April 27

No

BardokRedSnow wrote: »

This lifecycle of the game needs it plain and simple, the Steam charts show that well enough despite comments about PCNA and PCEU population.

im keeping it 100% with you i think this just one bad decision on top of many others that has drove players away from the game forced grouping , meta sweeps,class changes, oakensoul, subclassing ,cp2.0, pvp being ignored, less content per DLCs content pass , vengeance, you seen the reasons players left think about how fast traders that get shut down over night going to stay playing , think about all them that like playing solo or quitly getting text spammed or hearing yelling kids , with 3 types of music going all at the same time lol players talk about toxicity being bad in pvp wait until they can talk and not type

Lixiviant · April 27

Yes

I voted YES. I play on the PS NA and the majority of players are online later in the day, so it is a bit lonely when I'm on. If this will bring more people to the Zones, I'm all for it. The Guilds I have joined supposedly play 24/7, but I have found that is not the case.

I wonder though, how will they deal with duplicate names?

Nordstern · April 27

Yes

Im stunned how many people don't understand how important crossplay is for the long term survival of this game. Especially Xbox EU is dying fast and thats a downward spiral as people stop playing even tho they love the game because they can't find people to play with anymore. While Xbox EU is the worst, this will happen to every server sooner or later. With crossplay the lack of others to play with won't be a reason for people to quit for a very long time. And while I don't know much about the underlying architecture I could imagine that once it's succesfully implemented 2 big servers will be easier to maintain for the devs than 6 smaller ones.

KalevaLaine · April 27

Voted yes before, but one question.

What would happen if someone has the same ID or character name on the other system as me on PC?

tomofhyrule · April 27

Yes but I have some concerns about it

It's 2026. This game needs crossplay, whether anyone wants it or not.

I just hope they do it properly and not in a destructive way, but ZOS has not exactly been in the habit of doing things non-destructively lately.

I don't think the economy will be a factor - yes, the economies will be very different, but that is something that will even out over time. Console players who are concerned about the value of their gold can simply cash in a lot of their gold for items before the merge, and then sell them afterwards to end up in a better place. A merge will also allow Console players to use PC trade guilds, so that problem solves itself as well.

I also don't think voice will be a factor either. PC doesn't have a native VC in game, but the Console ones are not exactly at a high quality in the first place and they do move to native console chat features anyway. PC already has a culture of using Discord, which is not only available on Console now but it's possible to use on a separate device (like a phone) for voice while playing (I'm on PC and that's how I prefer it), so it's more likely that everyone will migrate to third-party apps like Discord. Plus, that'll save some memory space in the game if the chat feature is removed.

My big concern is the character names. ESO's megaservers are currently set up where character names must be unique, and that now begs the question of what's going to happen if a PC player and a Console player both have the same name. Especially if we consider that the Console player with the name played for three days right at release and then uninstalled, while the PC player with the name started in 2019 and has been playing every day in hardcore RP since then. Who deserves the name, the first one, or the one who plays more?
And no, "lol just append '-PC' to the end of the name!" is not a good solution, because for your more lore-focused players, it'll be very distracting very fast if they're in dialogue with NPCs and have to say "My name is John Smith-PC!" Account names could get a suffix to prevent that. But character names really should just go to allowing multiple of the same character name per server then.
A lot of ESO players are very attached to their characters, and forcing name changes in any way will be all it takes for them to hit the eject button hard.

The other big concern would be unifying the patches since that'll make updates and incrementals take longer to release due to certification, but... well, we got that one at the beginning of the year. We've already gone from 5 weeks of PTS and 1 week of prep to 4 weeks of PTS and 4 weeks of prep before major patches release now.

EDIT: Oh right, and queue times - that could be an issue, especially if we look at Grey Host. Dungeons will get loads more DPS and very few more tanks and Venceance will get loads more people, but if the devs are determined that Grey Host be the one-and-only non-Vengeance Cyrodiil option, that's going to have queues 2-3 times the pop cap. They really need to reconsider keeping Blackreach open at minimum, because the playerbase as a whole is not at all on board with their unstated goal of "no Cyrodiil except Vengeance" no matter what they do.

Mojey87 · April 27

Yes but I have some concerns about it

as long as crossplay doesnt affect the performance of the game for the pc players i dont mind it, and it doesnt favorized console players over pc in term of pvp performance.

DoofusMax · April 27

Yes but I have some concerns about it

I'm going "yes, but have concerns" but that does not accurately capture my thoughts. I'm a PC player and although I have a Series X, I doubt that I'm going to be at all tempted to use that platform. If others want to be able to play on any platform, I'm pretty much OK with that, but I think we've got a lot of folks using "crossplay" to mean different things, although not necessarily mutually exclusive things.

The reality of the situation is that we all play the game we have and the game we want only exists in imagination. That means it's mostly on ZOS to spell out what "crossplay" means to them. Yes, I know "we're working on it" and yes, I know that means "it's not happening in 2026," and yes, I know that today's maintenance is putting some stuff in place to facilitate development, but it would be really nice if ZOS were to define terms. What does "crossplay" look like in their collective heads because the only concrete thing they've said thus far is that they don't know if it's technically possible, which implies that they have at least a rough idea of what the finished product should look like. The rest of us are pretty much talking about a game which doesn't exist and they're the only one who know what the game which can exist looks like.

heimdall14_9 · April 27

No

tomofhyrule wrote: »

It's 2026. This game needs crossplay, whether anyone wants it or not.

I just hope they do it properly and not in a destructive way, but ZOS has not exactly been in the habit of doing things non-destructively lately.

I don't think the economy will be a factor - yes, the economies will be very different, but that is something that will even out over time. Console players who are concerned about the value of their gold can simply cash in a lot of their gold for items before the merge, and then sell them afterwards to end up in a better place. A merge will also allow Console players to use PC trade guilds, so that problem solves itself as well.

I also don't think voice will be a factor either. PC doesn't have a native VC in game, but the Console ones are not exactly at a high quality in the first place and they do move to native console chat features anyway. PC already has a culture of using Discord, which is not only available on Console now but it's possible to use on a separate device (like a phone) for voice while playing (I'm on PC and that's how I prefer it), so it's more likely that everyone will migrate to third-party apps like Discord. Plus, that'll save some memory space in the game if the chat feature is removed.

My big concern is the character names. ESO's megaservers are currently set up where character names must be unique, and that now begs the question of what's going to happen if a PC player and a Console player both have the same name. Especially if we consider that the Console player with the name played for three days right at release and then uninstalled, while the PC player with the name started in 2019 and has been playing every day in hardcore RP since then. Who deserves the name, the first one, or the one who plays more?
And no, "lol just append '-PC' to the end of the name!" is not a good solution, because for your more lore-focused players, it'll be very distracting very fast if they're in dialogue with NPCs and have to say "My name is John Smith-PC!" Account names could get a suffix to prevent that. But character names really should just go to allowing multiple of the same character name per server then.
A lot of ESO players are very attached to their characters, and forcing name changes in any way will be all it takes for them to hit the eject button hard.

The other big concern would be unifying the patches since that'll make updates and incrementals take longer to release due to certification, but... well, we got that one at the beginning of the year. We've already gone from 5 weeks of PTS and 1 week of prep to 4 weeks of PTS and 4 weeks of prep before major patches release now.

EDIT: Oh right, and queue times - that could be an issue, especially if we look at Grey Host. Dungeons will get loads more DPS and very few more tanks and Venceance will get loads more people, but if the devs are determined that Grey Host be the one-and-only non-Vengeance Cyrodiil option, that's going to have queues 2-3 times the pop cap. They really need to reconsider keeping Blackreach open at minimum, because the playerbase as a whole is not at all on board with their unstated goal of "no Cyrodiil except Vengeance" no matter what they do.

so console traders are to just bow down to the PC gods and the players unload their gold on uesless junk in hopes to sale in the PC market driving the console traders right out the market sounds like a good plan if your an PC player sorry but this is how how my mind reads what you said about console trader and im sorry to tell you there is guilds that their whole reasoning for playing is to sale with their guild not some unknow PC guild that just took over their market , they wont log in afterwards sorry to say it but there are trader guilds that their solo reasoning for playing is to hold top slots in traders both on pc and consoles

ESO has its own independent VC on console and tho it gets buggy at times it works great when it works 98% of the time

robwolf666 · April 27

No

Servers have enough trouble as it is now.

LittleLionLeone · April 27

Yes

I'm interested in see what they do with voice chat. Will they keep it but only Xbox and PlayStation can hear each other? If so then I can see that causing issues in pugs where console players are expecting comms through vc instead of text.

Or will they just scrap voice chat? I don't see them adding voice chat to pc. I do like voice chat on consoles, it makes the game feel more cozy when you can walk into a town and hear people having conversations. But ofc it has problems like people blasting music ect.

heimdall14_9 · April 27

No

DoofusMax wrote: »

I'm going "yes, but have concerns" but that does not accurately capture my thoughts. I'm a PC player and although I have a Series X, I doubt that I'm going to be at all tempted to use that platform. If others want to be able to play on any platform, I'm pretty much OK with that, but I think we've got a lot of folks using "crossplay" to mean different things, although not necessarily mutually exclusive things.

The reality of the situation is that we all play the game we have and the game we want only exists in imagination. That means it's mostly on ZOS to spell out what "crossplay" means to them. Yes, I know "we're working on it" and yes, I know that means "it's not happening in 2026," and yes, I know that today's maintenance is putting some stuff in place to facilitate development, but it would be really nice if ZOS were to define terms. What does "crossplay" look like in their collective heads because the only concrete thing they've said thus far is that they don't know if it's technically possible, which implies that they have at least a rough idea of what the finished product should look like. The rest of us are pretty much talking about a game which doesn't exist and they're the only one who know what the game which can exist looks like.

this right here without more info we all could be talking about nothing as they could have a world trade market coming long side the change , they can have a lots of things that answers question everyone has but in zos fashion they wont share that far ahead tho the players are thinking that far ahead because we are the ones going to be effected by what they do

Major_Mangle · April 27

No

Pull the plug on console, was a mistake from the start and should´ve never been a thing. Held back the game for so long honestly...

frogthroat · April 27

Yes

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

To answer your question: Yes, I do play this game. I’ve been here since release day, I’m a 19x Emperor, and I currently manage 16 different accounts across both PC and PlayStation. My perspective isn't based on "teacup storms"—it’s based on over a decade of seeing how this game’s economy and performance actually function across different ecosystems.

Ah, so you are just not as good with a controller? There's plenty of PC-equivalent players on consoles, so this is more about your own, personal shortcomings?

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

On "Server Hardware":
It’s not as simple as "adding more hardware." Crossplay requires a massive synchronization layer to reconcile different network protocols from Sony, Microsoft, and PC. This isn't just about raw power; it's about the "overhead" of the server constantly checking for parity between a 144Hz PC and a 60Hz console in real-time combat. Given that we already see performance degradation during mid-year mayhem or in Cyrodiil on separate servers, adding that extra layer of complexity is a massive technical risk.

Since you know better than ZOS engineers, why have you not offered your expertise to them?Surely, if you know better than ZOS you should tell them.

Also, thanks for the free upgrade of my PC. It's old and I play 60Hz in winter and during summer heats I might have to lower it to 30Hz during the hottest days. But now it runs 144Hz? Thanks.

(For others reading this: This guy is mixing up screen refresh rate and server ticks. Your 144 Hz game won't send any more data to the server than the server can receive, which in case of ESO is between 60 and 64 ticks per second.)

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

On the Trade Alliance Argument:
Comparing the disbanding of one trade alliance on PCEU to a full-scale platform merge is apples and oranges. When an alliance disbands, that gold stays within the same ecosystem. When you merge PC and Console, you are injecting a decade of PC-inflated gold and automated trading data into a console market that has never had to compete with those numbers. PC guilds have a massive head start in capital; they won’t just "participate" in the market, they will own the bidding process for the best locations by default.

In the beginning there might be some differences, but in time it will be fine. This is not real economy and we are not forced to stay in our own predetermined platform guilds. There will be no economic depression and massive unemployment in Tamriel. And crossplay means people can move around freely. There will be no PC guilds, Xbox guilds and PS guilds, only guilds. When all is mixed, no guild will have an advantage over others due to their PC or console origin.

This is not the end of the world. You can put down your "the end is nigh" sign.

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

On Voice Chat:
Dismissing the voice chat issue ignores the social reality of the platforms. Console players rely on the built-in area and group chat for everything from PUGs to social interactions. PC has never had this. Forcing a voice-integrated culture onto a text-heavy community—especially one as linguistically diverse as the EU server—is a recipe for massive social friction that Discord doesn't solve for the average solo-queruer.

I missed the part where ZOS said voice is going to be removed from consoles. Can you point me to where you read that?

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

I’m not saying more players is bad. I’m saying that after 11 years, the "foundational" differences between how we play on PC vs. Console are too deep to just "flip a switch" without causing more problems than it solves.

Which is why they are doing massive updates to the code and the server downtime today is precisely for this preparation.

heimdall14_9 wrote: »

and PS I KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO FIGHT WITH WHAT I SAID BECAUSE IM USING AI TO HELP ME AND ITS SOMETHING YOU CAN ATTACK BUT AGAIN IVE PUT IM USING IT ITS WELL KNOWN THAT THE ESO COMMUNITY IS THE ONE THAT ASK I TRY USING IT TO BETTER PUT MY THOUGHTS INTO WORDS SO AT THIS POINT YOU ARE ATTACKING MY DISABILITY ..

Are your opinions from you? If yes, then your use of AI is irrelevant.

SilverBride · April 27

No

The economies are too different.
The societal norms are too different.
Duplicate User IDs and names will have to be dealt with.
Duplicate guild names will have to be dealt with.
There will not be enough merchants for all the trade guilds.

Ilsabet · April 27

Yes but I have some concerns about it

It would be nice to play with friends on different platforms, but I'm concerned about how ZOS will handle duplicate names, the mixing of economies when people are used to different price points, the availability of guild traders if you have three times as many guilds competing for the same number of kiosks, and the disparity between PC and console when it comes to addon availability.

Nordstern · April 27

Yes

Should be easy to add some platform-identification to guild/character names that is just visible internally and not to the players..

Why is vc such a problem? They either fully remove it which wouldnt be a big problem as console vc works great and discord is available on console or they add it to pc as well. If you dont want ingame vc, you could just deactivate it then. I haven't used ingame vc in 10 years.

guild trader spots will be a problem? I doubt that on pc all traders are stacked with items. So ofc many will lose their traders but trading guilds that take it seriously will definitely be able to secure a slot. When the game was brand new there were more players and guilds on the seperate servers than there will be on the crossplay servers. And we had way less guild traders back then.

The only thing that will probably be a problem are the different economies and i don't know a good solution for that. But honestly, thats a low price to pay for finally getting crossplay.

onyxorb · April 27

No

Crossplay has been tossed up generically, but no details have been provided about how it would work.

Would it only be for grouped content like trials or dungeons, or for 'everything'?

If it's for everything, how would the various differences in economy be handled?

More importantly, what happens to those of us who play on multiple servers and platforms?
What about all our crown purchases, achievements and collectibles?
What if I have the same crown home purchased and decorated on multiple servers?

Also, can I disable any features that I don't want? If they add voice comms to the game, I'm not going to want that, can I 'not' load that chunk of code so my game can run more efficiently with the components and addons I 'do' want to run?
Memory and CPU aint cheap anymore, I don't need a bunch of bloat code added that I won't use, just saying.

To be fair, my major concern is how they will handle all the crown purchases I have made on multiple servers (especially crown homes that have on both NA and EU). I know plenty of people who play on both console and PC with crown purchases on both platforms. They really need to clarify how they will address this.

It's just not clear how any of this will work, so I'd rather them focus on other stuff.

SilverBride · April 27

No

I'd like to know how many of those that want crossplay are console players. I suspect the majority.

aussie500 · April 27

No

I voted no because I have no interest in cross play, and any effect it has on my playing on PC-NA is likely to be negative.

heimdall14_9 · April 27

No

Nordstern wrote: »

Should be easy to add some platform-identification to guild/character names that is just visible internally and not to the players..

Why is vc such a problem? They either fully remove it which wouldnt be a big problem as console vc works great and discord is available on console or they add it to pc as well. If you dont want ingame vc, you could just deactivate it then. I haven't used ingame vc in 10 years.

guild trader spots will be a problem? I doubt that on pc all traders are stacked with items. So ofc many will lose their traders but trading guilds that take it seriously will definitely be able to secure a slot. When the game was brand new there were more players and guilds on the seperate servers than there will be on the crossplay servers. And we had way less guild traders back then.

The only thing that will probably be a problem are the different economies and i don't know a good solution for that. But honestly, thats a low price to pay for finally getting crossplay.

also had wayyyyy lesss gold to control the bids now 12 years later PC has 10xs the amount of gold in their economy then console has look at the price tag on things between the two look at the bids for traders had eso started out crossplat this wouldnt be a big issue but this late in the game this like adding two 3rd world economic into a golbe power house and saying the 3rd world will find a place , yes at the bottom and they will stop playing defeating the whole reason for crossplay adding players just to run them off dont reall count as adding anything rather lossing what you had for not leaving enought alone

FatOldGamer · April 27

If having crossplay means we have to put up with huge downtimes like today until they introduce it, no thanks.

colossalvoids · April 27

No

I don't, personally. Having my concerns (behavioural, performance wise etc.) but clearly zos are either having a plan to alleviate those or see those issues as no big deal same as with overland difficulty we're getting - it's their execution of it, no matter if that's what we asked or wanted.

It's happening anyways so I'm glad the game is progressing for some, just hopeful they're not taking the game into the performance dark ages we had (relatively) not so long ago.

freespirit · April 27

No

I voted no because I have huge, absolutely massive concerns about ZoS's ability to get this done and get it done right on release!!

There have been some really rocky, well let's face it apalling releases recently!

*cough, cough, that totally AMAZING, first time ever World Event.....we all remember how well that went. 😮