Elden Ring's producer says development of its Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is 'going well', compares it to Bloodborne with 'new battles and new characters'

Elden Ring
(Image credit: FromSoftware)

FromSoftware recently received a gong for Elden Ring at the Japanese PlayStation Partners awards, as part of which producer Yasuhiro Kitao picked up the trophy and said a select few words to the press. The conference was reported on by the publication Game Watch and, as Kitao was speaking in Japanese, this is a lightly edited machine translation of his remarks.

Kitao begins on familiar turf, saying the studio was surprised by "so many people" picking up the game (publisher Bandai Namco's most recent milestone was an announcement Elden Ring has sold over 20 million copies). Kitao said FromSoftware didn't expect such wild numbers and "there are no words other than gratitude".

Kitao says this success hasn't changed anything about how FromSoftware works, saying the studio remains committed to working "diligently to create something interesting and valuable." The success has meant, however, that FromSoftware has moved to a new and larger studio thanks to its increasing numbers of staff. "The aim was to create an environment where they could concentrate more," says Kitao, which is rather ominous in the context of the studio that created Byrgenwerth et al. "The development environment itself is still in its infancy, but it is improving."

Then the question about Elden Ring's DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, which doesn't even have a release date yet. Kitao doesn't really say anything of substance, but the exciting point is that he uses the 'B' word. "I'll talk about the DLC another time," says Kitao. "It's still a little ways off, but progress is going well. Like Bloodborne's expansion, it has new battles and new characters: So please look forward to new things."

FromSoftware generally does excellent expansions, the kind that really add to the base game and make it feel somehow more complete: they're anything but an afterthought. Even in this company, however, Bloodborne's The Old Hunters is probably the single best expansion to a game I've ever played, flipping everything players thought they knew about that world and adding a host of iconic characters, environments, and situations. The Old Hunters is as good as videogames get and, yes, I'm still waiting on the PC version.

Kitao didn't say anything else about Shadow of the Erdtree, though did end with some speculative thoughts on why FromSoftware has over time been able to build such a mass audience for its unique style of games. "I think the high degree of freedom in strategy [is the appeal]," says Kitao. "I think it's because each user has a different experience in the way they play the game, and can continue to play for a long time. I think this has given rise to a lot of interesting conversations."

He's probably on to something there. You can play Elden Ring like me, in the uncreative but effective loin-cloth-with-massive-sword combo, or you can be a crafty little rat, a Malenia-killing machine devoted to the greater good, or—as with one of my builds—a sort of pacifist death-monk thing (OK, not that pacifist). There are so many ways to play you could just go through this thing endlessly. Players respond to this lack of hand-holding and buried secrets, too: one of the Elden Ring stats that really jumped out at me post-launch was that more players had seen the 'secret' ending that requires plenty of hoop-jumping than the 'normal' one. My hopes were already high for Shadow of the Erdtree: but comparing it to Bloodborne's The Old Hunters? I cannot wait to make contact.

Elden Ring guide:Elden Ring bosses:Elden Ring map fragments:Elden Ring weapons:Elden Ring armor:

Elden Ring guide: Conquer the Lands Between
Elden Ring bosses: How to beat them
Elden Ring map fragments: Reveal the world
Elden Ring weapons: Arm yourself
Elden Ring armor: The best sets

TOPICS
Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

Read more
Elden Ring Nightreign screenshot
Elden Ring Nightreign's Steam page lets slip it'll have DLC bosses and player characters
Best Expansion 2024: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Best Expansion 2024: Elden Ring – Shadow of the Erdtree
Junya Ishizaki next to an image from Elden Ring: Nightreign
Elden Ring Nightreign director didn't want to 'encroach too much' on the lore fans hold sacred by including Dark Souls bosses, but admits 'I thought it'd be kind of fun'
elden ring nightreign
3 hours with Elden Ring Nightreign helped me accept it's not the co-op FromSoft game I asked for, but damn fun in its own right
Bloodborne in excelsis.
Retired PlayStation exec reckons Bloodborne PC hasn't happened because Miyazaki 'cannot do it himself, but he doesn’t want anyone else to touch it'
Elden Ring: Nightreign
What the heck is Elden Ring: Nightreign? Our big explainer covering new characters, loot, roguelike mechanics and more
Latest in RPG
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
Latest in News
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all