The gaming industry has evolved unexpectedly in a decade. Players are not restricted to gaming PCs anymore. Gamers are more into exploring their gaming potentials on PlayStation, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch, and many gaming devices. That’s why players have advocated bringing popular titles to have cross-play features.
Is Elder Scrolls Online one of them? Is ESO cross platform? Undoubtedly, this game has brought every gamer from almost every genre with its strong graphics, interactive gameplay, monsters, and much more. There’s more to explore in Tamriel’s massive continent.
Currently, ESO is available for users relying on PC, Google Stadia, PlayStation, and Xbox.
Does this make ESO cross platform supported? Let’s find out whether players can invite their friends from different platforms or not.
Is ESO Cross Platform? Check it out.
Is ESO Cross Platform?
Cross-platform means that if two different players are using two different platforms, then they can join the game together.
Sadly, ESO doesn’t support cross-platform or crossplay. It means that PC players can’t invite friends who play the game on PlayStation or Xbox, and vice versa is also true. However, there’s an exception for Google Stadia.
Google Stadia shares its servers with PCs. Therefore, you can expect a near crossplay if you are a PC player and you invite your friends over to Google Stadia. And, you can play together.
On the other hand, there are different servers for different gaming consoles. ESO has cross-generation servers for connecting players using the same type of platform.
For example, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X respond to a particular server. Whereas PS4 and PS5 have their own server to share.
Currently, Elder Scrolls Online lacks crossplay. Consequently, it creates an issue among players from different platforms. Therefore, think twice before investing in a gaming console if you don’t want to play ESO solo.
Why doesn’t ESO Offer Crossplay?
Since there are tons of gaming consoles available in the market, the demand for crossplay games rises day by day. Players love the idea of playing any interesting game with friends irrespective of the hardware.
Additionally, many online video games have turned cross-platform. But, ESO is still not supported by cross platform.
Here are a few possible reasons why ESO hasn’t turned into a cross-platform.
- Hardware and software change from one platform to another. They are inseparably connected to the gameplay. Thus, cross-platform might impact the gameplay.
- Connecting two different devices or platforms might bring differences in the experience of players. If your opponent gets an unfair advantage due to his or her gaming console compared to your weaker console, then you lose your chances to win.
- In addition to this, frame rates differ too. Since players’ gaming consoles differ, it’s quite risky for the game to keep pace with diverse devices’ frame rates and display quality.
- Developers have to manage different versions of the same game for different devices and gaming platforms.
How can You Invite Friends on the same Platform to Play the Elder Scrolls Online?
Is ESO cross platform? It’s a definite no. However, ESO has cross-generational features. It means that you can invite players and play together if both of you share the same server. For instance, PC players can invite PC players only. On the other hand, PS4 players can invite anyone using PS4 or PS5.
If you are a PC user, then you have to follow the steps given below:
- Explore your Contacts menu under the game.
- Provide your friend’s UserID or character’s name if it’s not already in the contacts.
- After you have saved the details, you can select the contact. Afterwards, send a friend request to them.
Xbox users have to go through the following guidelines to make anyone join:
- Go to the Guild menu and open it up.
- Check out your Xbox One friends’ list and select the friend to whom you want to send the friend request.
- If the friend is not on your list, then you have to add them to the list. Provide the player’s username or character’s name. Once it appears on your screen, click on Add As Friend.
- Then, you have to select the friend and invite them to play the Elder Scrolls Online on Xbox.
What about PlayStation Players?
Is ESO cross platform? Since the answer is no, you are limited to a specific kind of gaming console where you have to invite other players to join you. The same is true for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 users.
Here’s how you can invite any of your friends through PS4:
- Head towards the Guild menu.
- Navigate to your friends’ list on your gaming interface.
- Select the friend from the list and send a friend request.
- If the friend doesn’t exist on your friends’ list, then add them to the list. Enter the player’s username and select the ‘Add as Friend’ option.
After that, you can join quests together. Simply, click on any player’s name and choose the option, ‘Travel to Player’. There will be no issue if you share the same region and server and both of you are playing on the same type of gaming console.
Will ESO Come Up with Cross-Play?
As per recent reports, Zenimax Online Studios, the developer of ESO, has no intention to bring cross-play into the gameplay. Every server of the game has enough players and none of them is suffering from any issues. That’s why the developer is not much into bringing a crossplay feature.
Instead, Zenimax Online Studios concentrated on Deadlands expansion for PC and other gaming consoles. As a result, we got The ESO: Deadlands on 1 November 2021.
However, gaming console users had to wait until 16 November 2021 to get a compatible version. Is ESO cross platform, yet? There’s no confirmation from the developer that they will bring cross platform anytime soon.
Summing up….
Apparently, the developer is not interested in featuring cross-platform for ESO right now. However, we might get a yes to the query: ‘Is ESO cross platform?’. Since other games and developers have already started featuring cross-play. Let’s hope for the best for the cross-platform feature for Elder Scrolls Online.