The one continent which was shown as part of the Elden Ring playtest appears to be less than a third of the size of the final map.
In a recent preview, Kotaku Australia writer Junglist explains that in the network test which took place at the end of last year, they had assumed that the continent into which they were confined would be all Elden Ring had to offer. In the more recent version of the game, however, it seems that the map extends out further than previously thought.
The preview noted that zooming out on the world map as far as possible showed the initial continent, now surrounded on the top and bottom by black bars. While this lead to the possibility that the map was larger than we first thought, it could also be that a bug allowed players to zoom out further than intended in this not released version.
However, by playing further in, Junglist discovered that the map might be far bigger than the continent. Finding themselves teleported to another part of the map, the player checked the map again, and found themselves at the very edge of a much larger black square, with the initial continent only filling a small part of the whole. While it's difficult to assess the true size of the final map, it might mean that the final map is significantly larger - perhaps up to nine times - than what we initially thought.
Those who want to know more about Elden Ring can read our interview with Hidetaka Miyazaki the creator of the Dark Souls games.
