Elden Ring Nightreign's director isn't worried about launching the co-op spin-off into a climate that killed countless live service games this year, partly because Nightreign isn't actually a live service game and partly because developer FromSoftware isn't concerned about "what's going on" in that space.
The Elden Ring co-op spin-off was announced just yesterday at The Game Awards 2024, condensing the base game's experience into 40-minute rounds that you can play either alone or with two other friends. You essentially squad up, survive and gather loot over three in-game days, and then battle the big final boss at the very end.
Pivoting into a multiplayer direction hasn't worked out too well for other single-player-driven studios, however. BioWare's Anthem didn't last long. Naughty Dog had to cancel its own Last of Us multiplayer game. And Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was just on sale for a fiver, despite having come out this year - not to mention the Concords and xDefiants that also flopped recently.
When asked about the potential risks of launching a new multiplayer game, in an interview with IGN, director Junya Ishizaki said that the studio doesn't "tend to look at the industry and base our game design or our concerns on what's going on." The team's philosophy is apparently to make something they themselves are "passionate about" and "enjoy playing," and then trust that players "will share in that experience and hopefully enjoy it as well."
Ishizaki was also quick to note that Elden Ring Nightreign isn't a live service game, too. "Once you buy Nightreign, you get the complete package, everything is unlockable out of the gate," he said. "So we want it to be clear that this is what we wanted to make. It's not intended as a live service game." We'll see how it all unfolds when Elden Ring Nightreign comes to PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One next year.
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