The most anticipated game of 2021 remains a total mystery, but one day very soon everything could change for Elden Ring.
The fruits of a collaboration between the visionary creator of Dark Souls Hidetaka Miyazaki and Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring is a new Soulslike title that could be the most ambitious title developer FromSoftware has ever produced.
Here's everything we do know about Elden Ring.
What is Elden Ring?
Developer FromSoftware is best-known for challenging dark fantasy "Soulsborne" games that include Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. They're intense third-person action games that focus on martial combat with swords, spears, shields, and other close-range weaponry. Except there's also usually some kind of magic involved. Most Soulsborne games are fairly streamlined, but rumors indicate that Elden Ring will mix-up the formula by incorporating open-world elements and horse-riding mechanics.
Elden Ring was written in collaboration with Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, who worked mainly on developing the game's lore. Elden Ring could wind up being an open-world Dark Souls with Game of Thrones vibes — which sounds like a dream come true.
Elden Ring was originally announced during a June 2019 Xbox E3 showcase. Even though there has been no official information about the game since then, 2021 feels like the time when things will finally start to change.
When is the next Elden Ring reveal?
At least one leak that emerged in late April 2021 offers convincing evidence that the next major news drop will happen during E3 2021.
Twitter user @IdleSloth84 tweeted a supposedly leaked image that originated from 4chan (so take it with a grain of salt). The image, included above, plainly makes the claim that a “Worldwide Reveal” will be happening on June 14, 2021. The image includes the Xbox logo but not Sony’s PlayStation logo, which could just be a clue that whatever this is tied to will air during Microsoft’s E3 2021 Xbox presentation.
During a February 2021 Twitch livestream, journalist and industry insider Imran Khan speculated that we'd learn more about Elden Ring before E3 2021 in June, so it’s beginning to look like his prediction will pan out. Other industry insiders — namely VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb and Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier — also predicted around then that the game would be shown “relatively soon.”
The timing of E3 makes a lot of sense, especially when you consider some previous leaks about a reveal trailer.
Is there an Elden Ring leaked trailer?
Warning: Potential spoilers for Elden Ring follow.
Video Games Chronicle first reported in early March 2021 of a leaked Elden Ring trailer making the rounds online. Labeled as "Bandai Namco Confidential," the trailer was likely created as a way to showcase the game within the company as opposed to a public trailer.
“I can only imagine what drives you to seek the Elden Ring,” a narrator says in the trailer. “I suppose you can’t be talked into turning back. Very well then!” As described by VGC, the trailer includes "a montage of familiar Souls-style melee combat, boss battles against a fire-breathing dragon and a large, sword-wielding foe, and a glimpse at horseback combat in a large, open environment." All of these details are perfectly in line with expectations, particularly given previous rumors about horseback combat in an open world.
Inverse has independently seen pieces of the trailer and can confirm that it includes gameplay, specifically mounted combat from horseback and a fight against a dragon, along with familiar weapons and magic spells from Dark Souls games. The trailer does not note any kind of release date, but it does refer to the game as “an all-new fantasy action RPG franchise from the creators of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro."
Resetera user Omnipotent (an insider with a proven track record) also noted the vibrant design of the world compared to the grim darkness of other FromSoftware games: “It’s a pretty colorful game, and that was their intention,” they wrote.
When is the Elden Ring release date?
FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have still not announced an official release date for Elden Ring yet. Many may have hoped for a release date sometime in 2021, but a report from at least one industry insider makes it seem like it may be pushed into 2022.
Video Games Chronicle reported in March 2021 that the game has "been delayed several times internally due to disruption caused by the pandemic," specifically remote working conditions. At least one person said they expected the game to be released in 2022 instead. While we have to take this with a grain of salt, it does seem pretty likely.
Francesco Fossetti, editor of the Italian publication Everyeye, claimed during a December 2020 stream that the game was in the "polishing" phase. (This is one of the latest stages in game development.) That makes sense considering the fact that Game Director Miyazaki confirmed in a 2019 Xbox Wire interview that Elden Ring has been in development since at least 2017, overlapping with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for a long stretch.
Every major FromSoftware game since Dark Souls II has been released in the month of March, so that may be the window that the company is hoping for. Sekiro, for instance, was unveiled at E3 2018 in June and then released nine months later in March 2019. Elden Ring isn't following a similar promotion and release cycle, and that may or may not be due to potential production delays related to the pandemic.
What seems likely is that the game will be revealed at E3 2021 in June and then released in March or April of 2022.
Is there an official Elden Ring trailer?
Elden Ring was officially revealed on June 9, 2019 during Microsoft’s E3 2019 press conference with an initial teaser trailer that looks exciting but also very confusing. (Watch it above.)
The reveal trailer opens with a shirtless humanoid (maybe a god?) hammering something on a massive rock in a dark cave-looking area. We later get a closer look at the figure, who wields a stubby hammer and has cracks in his back, as if he were made out of stone.
There’s also an elderly, long-haired human wearing a crown, holding up what looks like a giant's arm (the king has his left hand shoved inside the arm ... gross!). Five other large arms reach out to grab him, which jives with all the body horror we see in games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
“I doubt you could even imagine it!” a voice says. “That which commanded the stars, giving life its fullest brilliance: The Elden Ring. Oh Elden Ring … shattered, by someone or something. Don’t tell me you don’t see it. Look up at the sky: It burns!” (It sort of becomes clear that the first being with the hammer shatters the Elden Ring.)
We also see an armored, red-haired female warrior who attaches a metal right arm to her torso. Another, seemingly different warrior wearing armor attacks a massive enemy we don’t get a good look at. Later, there’s a large red-haired ogre that burns on a battlefield — and then a white-haired woman with a staff who collapses.
None of this makes much sense at all without any context, but it sure looks cool.
The Elden Ring seems like a powerful artifact that had magical powers of creation, and its destruction plunged the world into chaos. These various types of warriors may hint at the kind of customization we can expect from the game, or they may be major NPCs the player will encounter or even battle.
It seems probable that we’ll get yet another trailer sometime during E3 2021.
What does Elden Ring concept art tell us?
In January 2021, Artist Gabriel Björk Stiernström posted to Artstation pieces of concept art that he created for the original Elden Ring reveal trailer. The post has since been removed from Artstation and the artist's personal website. While none of the images are particularly revelatory, they do offer slightly different perspectives on the people and places featured in the trailer.
Most of the action focuses on a kind of pedestal where the titular Elden Ring seemingly resides. In the above GIF, a character looms over it as magical-seeming dust particles drift upward. They're hunching quite a bit, so this person seems different from some of the others featured in the trailer.
The moment the ring is seemingly destroyed is captured in the below GIF. It explodes with a flash of bright light and the energy then shoots right up into the air.
What else do we know about Elden Ring?
Elden Ring will feel similar to the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. These gritty games are known for their punishing yet rewarding difficulty set in dark fantasy universes. Some Elden Ring leaks claim it'll take place in a “vast, fully-fledged fantasy world” closer to an open world, which is something we've never seen in a FromSoftware game. The February 2021 trailer leaks corroborate these claims.
"An adventure awaits the brave and gallant in ELDEN RING..."
In a June 2019 interview with Xbox Wire, Miyazaki spoke about the game in great detail.
"We wanted to create a new dark fantasy action RPG full of things that we weren’t able to do in the Dark Souls series,” he said. “This title will include a wide variety of weapons, magic, and ways to engage enemies, that make it possible to provide users with a style of gameplay and strategy that suits them." That emphasis on role-playing also means the player’s character will be fully customizable, like in Dark Souls or Bloodborne. When comparing it to Sekiro, he said Elden Ring “puts more focus on RPG elements.”
Gamesradar reported ahead of E3 2019 that the project, with a working title of Great Rune, “is set in the Norse world, exploring Norse mythology and all its dark legends.” Other rumors reported by Gematsu called it an “open-world title (with horse riding) … with various kingdoms to visit and abilities to obtain from killing the leaders of those kingdoms.”
Many of the symbols and themes, however, seem more closely aligned with Celtic folklore. Some fans have drawn parallels to a character from Irish mythology called Nuada, a high king who loses their arm in battle and gets a new one through magic.
In terms of gameplay elements, Miyazaki has referred to the game as “open world,” confirming early teases that called it “the largest FromSoftware game to date.” Horseback riding could make the game feel similar to Zelda: Breath of the Wild or even Shadow of the Colossus, and early leaks make that seem accurate.
Resetera user Omnipotent claimed in March 2021 that Elden Ring would feature a weather system and that it would also utilize the same character creation and class system from other FromSoftware games: “Same system that’s been used in all the Souls games up til now,” they wrote. “Starting classes but beyond that, you can do whatever.” Beyond that, they also note that it’ll include player-vs-player and online multiplayer features akin to what we’ve seen in Bloodborne and the Souls games.
