Google recently announced that it would be shutting down its Stadia streaming platform. Some studios with games supporting Stadia are beginning to announce what is next for their players. The Elder Scrolls Online will welcome Stadia players to the PC version of the game.
The announcement was made today, and says, in part, that Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax had discussed what the next steps could be for the ESO audience. The resulting decision makes sense based on the hardware.
“We are happy to share that our Stadia players will be able to transfer their ESO accounts to PC, bringing with them all of their progress, including but not limited to existing characters, purchased items, achievements, and inventory. Since Stadia players already play ESO on our PC servers, all of their friends and guilt will be waiting for them once they complete the transfer."
A message to our ESO Stadia players: pic.twitter.com/eEIrKyRTDi
— The Elder Scrolls Online (@TESOnline) October 6, 2022
This was the extent of the announcement, without details on how the transfer process would work or when the option might be opened. However, it ends with the promise of more details “soon”.
With Google announcing, alongside the Stadia closure, that it would be refunding consumers for purchases made, it wasn’t clear if this would simply be the end for those games’ communities. While players will be getting refunds from Google, it’s not clear yet if they’ll have to purchase the base game or any other content again to complete an account transfer for The Elder Scrolls Online.
ESO isn’t the only game that studios and publishers are working out how to support going forward thanks to the closure announcement. A major difficulty was the suddenness of Google's announcement, since nearly everyone was caught off guard.
Bungie and Ubisoft are working on how to proceed with getting their players over to PC. Ubisoft may have an easier time of it, offering copies on Ubisoft Connect. Bungie has 5,000 Destiny 2 players on Stadia daily, according to Paul Tassi at Forbes, and getting those copied to PC, if those players are Stadia-only, may be a challenge.
