As FromSoftware prepares for Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, president Hidetaka Miyazaki reveals that more open-world Soulslike games could come - but that doesn't mean they'll define the studio.
Elden Ring is arguably FromSoftware's most successful release yet, selling 20 million copies right before its first anniversary in 2023 and continuing to smash charts today. On Steam, the open-world RPG currently sits as the eighth most-played game - beating out various titles both old and new. While the mastermind Soulsborne developer made its mark in the past with titles like Bloodborne and Dark Souls, it's impossible to deny Elden Ring's own impressive reach and how it could affect the studio's future games.
Speaking in an interview with GameSpot, Miyazaki shares his thoughts on Elden Ring being an open-world hit and whether the genre will become "the baseline" for the company's future games. "I wouldn't necessarily say that open world is going to become the new base or foundation or standard of the company," Miyazaki explains. "We have a lot of game directors and designers who are growing, so we'd love to keep an open mind in terms of the types of games that we develop."
The FromSoftware lead continues, providing exciting yet vague comments about upcoming games from the beloved Soulslike studio: "So, of course, I can't really say anything at this exact moment, but perhaps when you see future announcements from FromSoftware you'll look back at this point and think, 'Ah, that's what he meant.'" While Miyazaki doesn't expand on what fans may see later on, it certainly sounds like the company might not be done with the open-world genre - but it also isn't strictly adhering to it from here on out.
As for Elden Ring, Miyazaki says he wasn't "100% sure" the team could pull its open world off initially. "We've always wanted to push the status quo and kind of extend ourselves a little bit, which was what helped create Elden Ring." Leaning into the open-world genre was key while developing the critically acclaimed game, he explains, as "a lot of the core concepts came down to giving players this adventurous feel, this very open-world freedom" and then "adjusting the difficulty to match that freedom that we're giving players."
Miyazaki feels that FromSoftware accomplished as much with Elden Ring, but "nothing is ever perfect." If given the chance to "redo" the open-world RPG, the president admits that he "might do something differently but I would like the chance to revisit a lot of the themes that we set out to achieve." Could that mean a future open-world game from FromSoftware that encompasses some of those themes? There's no telling now, but fans have more non-linear, open-world fun in Shadow of the Erdtree to look forward to for now.
