While some MMORPGs are desperately in need of new players, currently so many The Elder Scrolls Online players want to play that the EU servers of the PC version cannot provide enough capacity. Queue systems have now been introduced.
What is going on? Zenimax announced that there are performance issues on the EU megaserver of the PC version of The Elder Scrolls Online. According to the developer, this is associated with a surge of players that the server’s capacity cannot handle.
For this reason, queue systems had to be implemented.
Europeans are playing on PC
Why is this only the case for the EU servers? According to Matt Firor from Zenimax, this “problem” mainly affects the EU servers because there are more PC players in Europe. The Elder Scrolls Online is therefore predominantly played on PC rather than on consoles here.
How are the issues manifesting? In general, the server performance is not good, but there are other signs as well:
- Lags
- Connection dropouts
- Zone transitions to “zones” do not work
- Finding a group does not always succeed
When did the problem arise? According to Zenimax, initial signs were noticed in January, but by the end of March, there was an extreme surge in player numbers. This became so severe that the server could not keep up, negatively impacting the player experience for ESO fans.
Therefore, the team had no choice but to implement the queue systems now.
ESO is popular
What is causing the sudden influx of ESO players? At the end of March, a free play event took place, where players could play for free from March 28 to April 3. This probably attracted a lot of new players.
Additionally, the MMORPG was discounted for the 25th anniversary of the Elder Scrolls series. Furthermore, it is possible to play the Elsweyr prologue quest for free, which introduces the upcoming Elsweyr addon. ESO is also currently celebrating its 5th anniversary with an event.
All these factors have likely not only rekindled the interest of veterans in checking out ESO again but also attracted new players.
What is Zenimax doing now? Initially, the queue system was implemented. However, this is not intended to be a permanent solution. The studio plans to increase server capacities.
This applies to both the EU and US megaserver, as the same problem is brewing on the horizon there.
As can be seen from this situation, the MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online is currently doing quite well.
