Does Elder Scrolls Online Have Cross-Platform Functionality?

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Investigate if Elder Scrolls Online offers cross-platform play and cross-saving functionality, as well as learn about the developers’ strategies for enhancing the multiplayer aspect in future updates.

Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that takes players to Tamriel a thousand years before the Skyrim events. It initially debuted on PC in 2014, and versions for PlayStation and Xbox followed the next year. Consequently, its online player base consists of gamers from all three platforms, yet they play on distinct servers.

ESO lacks compatibility across different platforms, with each platform hosting its own regional servers. These servers are categorized into PC/Mac, Xbox, and PlayStation. Although consoles of the same generation can interact within the same server, players from PC, Xbox, and PlayStation cannot play together. However, crossplay, a highly requested feature for ESO since its debut, has finally seen some positive developments after a decade.

Will Elder Scrolls Online Have Crossplay in the Future?

As a devoted fan, I’m thrilled to share that, based on a May 2025 podcast broadcasted on Bethesda Softworks’ official YouTube channel, the talented team behind Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) has initiated work on cross-play functionality for the game. Game director Rich Lambert and Zenimax studio director Matt Firor were the ones to break this exciting news!

The team responsible for the game’s development is exploring options to enable crossplay functionality in the MMO. However, implementing crossplay presents a significant hurdle as it requires substantial modifications to the underlying technology of The Elder Scrolls Online to accommodate it. As stated by Zenimax, Microsoft’s multi-platform strategy plays a crucial role in making cross-platform gaming a feasible outcome.

As a gamer diving headfirst into this PvP balancing conundrum, I can’t help but foresee some intricate hurdles. For starters, PC players seem to have an upper hand in combat, which is something we’ll need to address to ensure fair play for all platforms.

On the technical side, developers are grappling with the task of harmonizing the economies across various servers, and tackling desynchronization issues that crop up now and then. The grand vision is to unify the distinct realms of PC, Xbox, and PlayStation gamers into a single battlefield, but even then, we’ll still be divided by geographical boundaries – much like the current EU and North American servers setup. This regional partitioning is crucial in reducing latency as my physical distance from a server grows.

Does Elder Scrolls Online Have Cross-Save?

ESO doesn’t allow transferring saved game progress between different platforms, such as Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. So, if you decide to switch from one platform to another, you’ll have to start a fresh character on the new platform. However, when crossplay is introduced and all platforms share servers, it’s expected that cross-saving will follow as the next feature.

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2025-06-17 20:48