The release of Elden Ring in 2022 was a monumental moment for FromSoftware. For a long time, games from the studio have been celebrated and critically acclaimed, though they were considered niche due to their demanding difficulty. However, with Elden Ring, FromSoftware has found mainstream popularity, and this is reflected by the game's astronomic sales. Within the first month of release, it sold 12 million copies, making it the fastest-selling Bandai Namco game ever. Naturally, gamers have already been wondering what FromSoftware will deliver next after Elden Ring's success.

While FromSoftware has yet to reveal what it intends to release after Elden Ring, there is reason to believe that it might be an offering that is more special than usual. Now that the gaming world is well into the current gaming generation, cross-generational releases will be less likely, giving FromSoftware greater ability to execute its more ambitious ideas. Furthermore, now that the studio has found a good balance between challenging combat and accessibility, it can continue to fine-tune this formula for the next release.

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The Next FromSoftware Game Will Probably Be Current-Gen Only

Elden Ring Difficulty Compared to Other Souls Games

Upon launch, Elden Ring was showered with praise, and it sits as one of the highest-rated games on Opencritic. Many critics applauded the open-world design, and it is not hard to understand why. Unlike Dark Souls games that present interconnected levels that weave together like a spider-web, Elden Ring is fully open-world, allowing players to tackle challenges in whatever order they please. The environments to explore are numerous, and players can gallop through meadows peppered with old ruins, only to find themselves wading through a swamp a few minutes later. Critics also spoke well of the game's lack of hand-holding, and how it allows players to figure things out on their own and craft their own adventure.

Despite all the compliments that the game received, there was a fair amount of criticism directed towards its technical performance, especially on last-generation consoles. At launch, a Digital Foundry review claimed that Elden Ring's performance on the Xbox One is "a profoundly unsatisfying experience" and the game on the PS4 is "a just-about passable way to play". While Elden Ring is not unplayable on last-generation consoles, it is clear that the game taxes the systems.

With FromSoftware's next release, enough time will have passed for last-generation consoles to be less relevant, reducing the need for cross-generation releases. When FromSoftware can focus on current-generation consoles alone, gamers can expect less poor technical performance and more current-gen perks such as faster loading times and better visuals.

FromSoftware Has Found the Perfect Balance

Tree Sentinel in elden ring

Although FromSoftware games have regularly received critical acclaim, many gamers have struggled to play them due to their difficulty and their resistance to adopting quality-of-life features that have become common in other games of the same genre. The games never spoon-feed the story to players, instead opting to leave players to piece together each game's plot using contextual clues and pieces of information collected throughout gameplay. Furthermore, in Dark Souls games, when players die, they respawn at bonfires, which means that players sometimes have a bit of a distance to travel before they can challenge a boss enemy again.

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Elden Ring is easily FromSoftware's most accessible game, but it does not compromise on the tough-as-nails difficulty that FromSoftware fans have become accustomed to. To make traveling the vast open-world easier, players are saddled up with a horse that can be summoned speedily, and it can ride wind currents to make navigating cliffs a breeze. Going up against bosses is also easier thanks to the inclusion of the Stakes of Marika which serve as temporary respawn sites, allowing players to jump straight into a rematch. Elden Ring's update patches released after launch have also made the game easier by increasing the stats of certain weapons and spells while rebalancing a few bosses.

Now that FromSoftware has found a good formula that allows it to maintain its ruthless difficulty while still making the game as accessible as possible, the studio can focus on fine-tuning and perfecting this formula. While difficult boss battles and frequent deaths are all part of the FromSoftware experience, the quality-of-life features that reduce gamers' stress are welcome, and they should make future games from the studio smoother for newcomers to ease into.

FromSoftware Is Expanding Beyond Gaming

Elden-Ring

Elden Ring's success was a surprise even for Bandai Namco and FromSoftware. In a Japanese press release, FromSoftware's president, Hidetaka Miyazaki, thanked fans for their support before revealing that Elden Ring will produce not just games, but other intellectual property, too. This is good news for gamers who cannot get enough of Elden Ring, as it opens the door for comics, movies, and television series set in the same universe. It also illustrates that FromSoftware is thinking far beyond gaming with its IPs, and it wishes to expand its idea beyond previously defined boundaries.

There is no telling what ambitious ideas FromSoftware will attempt to execute with its next release, and how it will tie in with other forms of media such as television and comics. Some have speculated that Elden Ring 2 will be the studio's next game, which is a reasonable guess as it would allow the studio to capitalize on Elden Ring's popularity and expand the game's universe. Hopefully, if an Elden Ring sequel does get released, it will come accompanied by the spin-offs promised by Miyazaki.

FromSoftware has yet to reveal what it is currently working on, though many speculate that Elden Ring will receive DLC soon. There have also been rumors claiming that the studio may be busy with the Bloodborne IP or may have plans to release a new Armored Core game. If FromSoftware can take everything it learned from Elden Ring and improve on it with its next release, the studio may very well release its greatest game yet.

Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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