It's a ways off, but Elder Scrolls Online will get crossplay and cross-progression 'at the same time'

An elf in The Elder Scrolls Online stands proudly amidst a dense forest. — (Image credit: ZeniMax / Bethesda)

As you might have heard, Elder Scrolls Online is getting crossplay after 12 long years. The first murmurings about the feature came in Oct. 2025, when developer ZeniMax Online Studios confirmed to Forbes it was being worked on, and it came up again in a Reddit AMA last week when the studio said that while crossplay is still being developed, it "won't be a 2026 item."

In that same thread, though, executive producer Susan Kath confirmed that cross-progression is coming too: "We will be doing crossplay and cross-prog at the same time," she wrote.

It's hard to know when to expect the features, though 2027 is the earliest window players might see it. MMOs with both crossplay and cross-progression are exceedingly rare compared to their PC-exclusive or otherwise cordoned-off counterparts, and given what sort of trouble arises squeezing all those players together on a single platform, it's no surprise this sort of thing takes a lot of extra work.

The note about cross-progression is great news, though, for anyone looking to explore Tamriel on multiple platforms. It's not clear how this will all work with PC addons, whether the game or its expansions will need to be bought again to play on different platforms, or what this means for the extra-dedicated sickos who already have significant progress on both a console version of the game and the PC version. One assumes that's the stuff they need the coming year to sort out.

Here's hoping ESO can pull itself out of the mud with changes like this and the recently announced 2026 roadmap. 2025 was an arduous year for the venerable MMO, with the original director leaving the company outright after layoffs killed the studio's unannounced next game. Strife aside, it's still one of the best MMOs on PC, and it should be even better once you can rope in all your friends with an Xbox or a Playstation.

Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...

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