FromSoftware hints at new game as Elden Ring becomes third biggest game on Steam

The realm of Shadow awaits (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)

The expansion for Elden Ring has caused player numbers to spike massively on Steam, but what is developer FromSoftware working on next?

Elden Ring expansion Shadow Of The Erdtree is officially out now, adding a whole new map filled with additional bosses, weapons, legacy dungeons, and skills to mess around with.

As you might expect, player numbers have shot up since the launch on Friday morning. As noted on SteamDB, Elden Ring is currently the third most played game on Steam, behind Counter-Strike 2 and err… that game where you click a banana.

At the time of writing, Elden Ring has achieved a 24-hour peak player count of 589,948. For comparison, on Wednesday it had just over 194,000 players.

It’ll need a significant boost before it surpasses its all-time peak player count though, which sits at 953,426 – from when it first launched two years ago.

Elden Ring is developer FromSoftware’s most successful title to date. As of June 12 this year, it has shipped over 25 million units worldwide. The Shadow Of The Erdtree expansion is also the highest rated DLC ever.

While it’s unclear if this will lead FromSoftware to jump straight into a sequel, studio boss Hidetaka Miyazaki has expressed how he’d like to make a traditional Japanese role-playing game in the future.

FromSoftware previously released Enchanted Arms in 2006, directed by Mastato Miyazaki (no relation), who now works at Capcom. Speaking to Rolling Stone about the future though, Miyazaki doesn’t think he’ll return to the studio’s past IP, if he were to pursue a more traditional role-playing project.

‘I think a lot of these games are so intertwined with the directors who almost invented that style of game,’ he said.

For an additional example, he goes onto reference 1994’s King’s Field, an action role-playing game which was produced by FromSoftware’s first president Naotoshi Zin and to which Dark Souls is considered a spiritual successor.

‘I don’t think there’s a scenario where I myself would make a King’s Field,’ he said. ‘The same can be said about Otogi and Enchanted Arms.’ The interview, however, does note that Miyazaki could see himself returning to Armored Core again, where he started his career at From.

While it wasn’t directed by Miyazaki himself, FromSoftware recently returned to the series in last year’s Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon, so it’s unlikely there’ll be a new one that soon.

However, the next project from FromSoftware could be an evolution of mechanics seen in Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. In a separate interview with Game Informer, Miyazaki explained how he’s been thinking about the relationship between offense and defence, which he believes he can ‘sharpen’ even more.

‘It’s become something much more fluid and active, I think, which was a very defining characteristic of Sekiro, and it’s something I’ve been thinking about since Bloodborne,’ Miyazaki said on the offense and defence mechanics.

‘Perhaps in Sekiro, it appears most obviously or its the clearest form that I think that philosophy can embody. And personally, I think there’s one more level we can crank it up to and sharpen that and hone in on that mechanic even more, but I think Sekiro was a big turning point.’

Between Elden Ring’s sales and Miyazaki’s comments, whatever FromSoftware works on next probably won’t be the much-requested remake of Bloodborne – something which he previously implied would make more sense for the next generation of consoles.

Shadow Of The Erdtress is out now (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)

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