Last week was the Gaming Community’s biggest annual event; E3. The convention hosted many big announcements including information on the PS4, more about the Xbox One, various trailers, and gameplay footage for new games.
Zenimax Online Studios and Bethesda also used this opportunity to announce that the Elder Scrolls Online would, in addition to PC/Mac, be available on both the PS4 and the Xbox One.
This is a reasonable decision from a business standpoint, as the hardware on the new consoles is strikingly similar to how a PC runs, making cross platform development little more than renaming a few files. It has, however, caused quite a stir within the ESO community. The majority of the uneasy feeling comes from too many unknowns regarding how the game will be distributed, whether players will be able to play cross platform, etc.
It has been confirmed that as of now, the game will NOT play cross platform. Many players will point to an ‘Unfair Advantage’ PC players will have by using a mouse instead of a controller. But in my opinion is that anyone can be great using the equipment of their choice.
It has also been confirmed that the PC/MAC version of the game will NOT support controllers, which I find rather disappointing and unnecessary since, again, the programming is fairly indifferent between the new consoles and a PC.
The final announcement that was made is that players WILL be able to have cross faction guilds in game. Little about the mechanics of this has come to fruition.
