Acclaimed Japanese studio FromSoftware was just awarded the coveted Game of the Year prize for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice at The Game Awards earlier in December, but the company appears to be wasting no time in creating its next project. Its game Elden Ring was announced at E3 2019, and we could be playing it far earlier than we anticipated.
A page on FromSoftware’s Japanese-language website advertises a New Year greeting card that players can register to receive with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Metal Wolf Chaos XD, or Elden Ring branding. It’s here that the page is interesting, as it says Elden Ring is planned for release next June. We also heard the game would release in June via a Target listing earlier this year.
We have only been shown a pre-rendered teaser trailer for the game thus far and have very little information on its contents, aside from its structure bearing some resemblance to the Souls series and the involvement of A Song of Ice and Fire creator George R. R. Martin.
Normally, releasing so many games in quick succession could be cause for concern, but FromSoftware and director Hidetaka Miyazaki have gotten quite good at it. Since 2011, the company has released the Souls and Souls-like games Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, as well as a selection of other games. We haven’t seen any drop in quality yet, and the studio has arguably gotten even more creative in recent years with Sekiro‘s innovative parrying system.
Should Elden Ring release so close to the launch of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, it’s also possible that it will be released as a cross-generation title. FromSoftware eventually brought both Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 to the Xbox One and PS4, with the first game’s remastered version even coming to Nintendo Switch. Thus far, Elden Ring is only confirmed for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
There will certainly be no shortage of Souls-like games releasing in 2020, either. Aside from Elden Ring, we will also get Nioh 2, which offers a magical and often terrifying version of feudal Japan. Lords of the Fallen 2 is also still in development, though it remains to be seen if it will actually release in 2020 or will be pushed back once again.
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