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Elder Scrolls Online's Matt Firor chats crossplay, the game's 10 year anniversary & more

Firor has been working on ESO for 17 years now and the idea of crossplay is one that poses a rather large challenge.

Sam Chandler

April 28, 2024 7:00 PM

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The Elder Scrolls Online has recently celebrated its 10^th birthday. A decade ago, this colossal title released on PC, where it gave Elder Scrolls fans an entirely new way to experience their beloved franchise. Since then, the game has seen numerous expansions and ongoing support from the developers at ZeniMax. Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with Matt Firor, the studio director at ZeniMax Online Studios, about celebrating this milestone and even dug into a popular topic: crossplay.

While players have been able to play The Elder Scrolls Online since 2014, the developers have been working on it for far longer. In fact, Firor notes that the game had been in development for seven years prior to its release. Part of the development process was figuring out how to ensure PvP could function in an MMO like ESO. To solve the common problem of population numbers, the developers essentially created their own form of cloud system, something that didn’t exist for online games back in 2014.

The conversation naturally shifted to discussing crossplay, which as Firor puts it is something that would be “awesome” and that the team has been looking at crossplay “forever”. It’s apparently a massive, technical challenge, and if the team were to do it, Firor wants to ensure they do it right.

We also talked about the incredible success of The Elder Scrolls Online as an MMO compared to other titles that have come and gone before it. Firor gives a lot of credit to how easy it is for new players to get in, even those who are unfamiliar with MMOs, as well as the game launching quite close to the release of Skyrim. The whole interview is packed full of juicy insight, so make sure you give it a watch. You can also find more conversations with the ESO developers on our Shacknews Interviews YouTube channel.

Sam Chandler

Head of Guides

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as Head of Guides. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler