It's safe to assume that nearly every fan of FromSoftware's Souls franchise is wondering where Elden Ring is. Announced during the Xbox conference at E3 2019, only 3 months after the release of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Elden Ring is FromSoftware's first foray into a pseudo-open world game design. Despite the anticipation from Souls fans since its announcement, FromSoftware has not said a word on the project's status since June 2019. This has lead some to speculate that Elden Ring might be facing cancelation.
While this might sound drastic to some, the lack of updates for over an entire year, outside of the confirmation that Sekiro and Dark Souls 3 composer Yuka Kitamura will compose the game's soundtrack, bears resemblance to past canceled titles such as PlatinumGames' Scalebound and Konami's Silent Hills. Both titles went through large periods lacking new information until they were inevitably canceled. That could be the worst case scenario, however, as it is also possible that Elden Ring could be facing development hell, hold-ups due to COVID-19, or any other number of things.
Elden Ring: Development Hell?
"Development Hell" is a period in which a piece of media is stuck in development for an especially prolonged period of time, with development stagnating to a point that even the general public acknowledges the state of limbo the project is currently existing in. Noteworthy titles to have suffered development hell include Duke Nukem: Forever, which took 14 years to release; Aliens: Colonial Marines, which took 12 years to release; Final Fantasy 15, which took 10 years from its announcement as Final Fantasy Versus 13 to release; and The Last Guardian, which took 9 years to release.
Titles currently believed to be in development hell include Beyond Good and Evil 2, Dead Island 2, and Capcom's Deep Down, none of which have been officially canceled.
Where is Elden Ring?
Development of Elden Ring began in early 2017 following the release of Dark Souls 3's The Ringed City DLC, with Hidetaka Miyazaki's intention during the conceptual stages being to evolve the Dark Souls formula, as the studio claimed it had concluded the Dark Souls series with Dark Souls 3. Elden Ring will feature an open field design that the player can traverse on horseback, a first for FromSoftware's Souls games and a potentially major step towards fundamentally changing the structure of the series forever. Th
Furthermore, Miyazaki also revealed that the game will not feature NPC populated town areas, the world will instead feature dungeons scattered around the map. This open-world structure brings to mind the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with its shrines possibly bearing similarities to the game's dungeons.
Up until now, the Souls games have never featured what one could describe as "linear" game design, with most of the games level designs bearing structural similarities to Metroidvania titles. This enables the player to progress through an area they once visited once they have acquired a new ability or defeated a certain enemy, but this change in game design could, like Breath of the Wild before it, change how many developers view the genre.
The George R.R. Martin Effect
Of course, it's hard to discuss Elden Ring without bringing up George R.R. Martin, the author of the best-selling fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, famously adapted into the HBO drama series Game of Thrones. With Martin, the writer has become infamous for his procrastination and long delays in-between novels, with the current A Song of Ice and Fire novel The Winds of Winter currently in the midst of its own development hell. Martin began writing the novel in 2011 and is still unsure of when the project will be finished.
How is this relevant to Elden Ring? One most surprising aspects of the project upon its announcement was that FromSoftware was joining forces with this legendary fantasy author to bring the world of Elden Ring to life. While Souls fans are surely ecstatic to see Elden Ring's world brimming with lore and history penned by such a renowned author, the history of The Winds of Winter only goes to show how busy of a man George R.R. Martin is.
While Hidetaka Miyazaki has implied that Martin finished his contributions to Elden Ring shortly before its announcement, given the scope of the project, it may be hard for FromSoftware and Martin to a period in which to collaborate on Elden Ring again if FromSoftware seeks to expand its vision further. This would be especially difficult during the midst of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, which would stop the creators from being able to meet up in the studio itself and bounce ideas off each other.
To bring this all back to the initial question, is Elden Ring canceled? Most likely, no. While FromSoftware's silence has been deafening, the most likely scenario is that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has hit the studio's workload hard and stagnated the creative processes of Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team. Elden Ring is poised to be FromSoftware's most ambitious title yet, and while a position like this could set the game up for something dramatic such as a development hell period or worse, FromSoftware has likely taken a route similar to other major studios such as Bethesda with Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6, and CD Projekt Red with Cyberpunk 2077.
Elden Ring is currently in development for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.