Earlier this week, Elder Scrolls Online players were annoyed by a nasty bug that duplicated their efforts between the PTS and North American live servers, resulting in downtime for everyone on the server and a serious rollback for a sizable number of accounts affected. Last night, ZeniMax Online Studios apologized for the mess, telling fans that while players will eventually be compensated, the studio’s first priority was “getting the PTS back online,” followed by “going through all the affected accounts to get everyone their accounts back as quickly as possible.” That’s meant some players have been locked out of their accounts for three days now.
And it doesn’t look like it’s moving quickly, either. ZeniMax posted an update this afternoon, admitting that it’s still working on the borked accounts.
“For those who are still blocked from logging in, we are continuing to work on resolving the locked accounts and a small number of accounts will be unlocked later today,” ZOS’ Gina Bruno says. “To set expectations, unlocking the remaining accounts and performing the necessary rollbacks will require server downtime and at that point, all remaining accounts will be unlocked at the same time. The soonest this will occur is by the end of the week but we will keep you posted on the timeline.”
In other words, it might not even be done by Friday even with the team “work[ing] around the clock” on the restoration (which may help explain why the devs decided to get the PTS back online first).
Bruno does say that the team will “make things right” for affected players. So far, we know that the Anniversary Jubilee will be extended, though only two days; all PC NA players will score 200 extra Seals of Endeavor; locked-out players will be given an ESO game code so they can play on a new temporary account while they wait; and “additional in-game items” will be granted to affected players, though we don’t know exactly what those will be just yet.
“The game code and event extension is not the only thing we plan to do to make things right for those with locked accounts. We hope to share these details in the next day or so,” Bruno writes. “[E]veryone identified with a locked account as a result of the PTS issues – with the exception of a handful of players who seriously exploited – will receive future communication about additional in-game items.”
