A new earnings report has offered some details on the development of Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC and could provide hints about its release date.
It wasn’t until February 2023 that FromSoftware confirmed that DLC is coming to Elden Ring. In the time since, neither the developer nor publisher Bandai Namco has offered any further info. There’s been no release date, no hint about what might be included, no clues about how it fits in the story, nor anything else.
Leakers and dot-connecting from media reports with figures around the companies have filled the gap to some degree, but fans have mostly been left scratching their heads. The only corporate entity that has any attachment to Elden Ring that has made a peep about the DLC is Kadokawa Corporation, the parent company of FromSoftware. In reports made to investors and shareholders for its next two quarters, it gave a small update on the project.
Are they still making the Elden Ring DLC?
The Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is still in development, with the process “going smoothly” according to FromSoftware’s parent company. This came from an earnings report that twice notes that no release date has been revealed.
“We are currently working hard on the development of DLC for Elden Ring but we have not announced a release date at this time,” the report reads.
Alongside that small detail were references to long-term plans for the budding IP. Kadokawa continued the refrain of “maximizing lifetime value” of Elden Ring for users. It’s unclear what exactly that means, but previous internal reports have suggested that more content is coming to Elden Ring beyond Shadow of the Erdtree.
So when is the DLC actually coming out?
There’s still no official release date for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree but there have been numerous leaks and reports regarding when it will likely come out.
Much of the discussion has come from random people on social media who claim to have insider info on the game, with some being proven wrong. There have been some notable figures in the FromSoftware content creation scene and journalists from credible outlets who have issued reports that give an idea.
The most notable example came from an interview with Bandai Namco Europe’s CEO. In an interview with GameIndustry.biz, the release date was labeled as “soon.” More recently, FromSoftware-focused influencer ZioStorm1 stated that the internal plan is to do the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree reveal at the 2023 Game Awards with the DLC coming out in February 2023. ZioStorm1 has accurately leaked information in the past, and has debunked the claims of other leakers regarding FromSoftware games.
Counterweighting this is a financial report from Kadokawa Corporation in May 2023 that suggested the DLC wouldn’t come out during its current fiscal year ending March 2024. It’s possible that the smooth release of Armored Core 6 and the company’s increased staffing have allowed FromSoftware to move faster than was anticipated.
With so little information coming out of Kadokawa, FromSoftware, or Bandai Namco on Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree or its release date, it’s impossible to say for sure. The report also compared the sales of Elden Ring and Armored Core 6 and discussed multiple changes within FromSoftware including plans to turn the company into a publisher and increase its development efforts.
