It’s been the better part of a year since the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Edrtree expansion was announced, and we’ve heard nothing of note about it since. The most recent financial report out of FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa brings both good news and bad on that front, which can be summed up in a single brief sentence: It’s coming along nicely.
“The release timing of DLC for Elden Ring has not yet been announced, but development is proceeding smoothly,” the report says. And that is the extent of it. For the true optimists hoping that a release target would be shared later in the report, as a sort of Columbo-style “just one more thing” surprise, I’m sorry to say that it’s not happening: In the Q&A section, Kadokawa repeats, “We are currently working hard on the development of DLC for Elden Ring but we have not announced a release date at this time.”
That presumably shoots down our assumption that Shadow of the Erdtree could be out in late 2023—it’s now November, after all, and while a no-notice surprise release is always possible, that strikes me as very unlikely. Early 2024 isn’t out of the question, but given the dearth of information (or even vague teasing) we’ve had so far—literally all we’ve got is confirmation that it’s happening and one piece of evocative but not particularly informative concept art—my inclination is to temper expectations.
Because I hate to leave you empty-handed, here’s one thin strand of hope to hold onto: The Game Awards are returning on December 7, and while the show is ostensibly about recognizing the year’s best games, it’s also very heavy on new game reveals and updates. Also recall that Elden Ring’s first gameplay reveal in 2021 was at Geoff Keighley’s other big show, the Summer Game Fest. Could Shadow of the Erdtree turn up at Keighley’s main event? Hey, you never know—although if it doesn, hopefully this time they’ll be a little more careful about who they let up on stage this time around.
The report also notes that “repeat sales” of Elden Ring “remained strong” for the first half of Kadokawa’s fiscal year, while FromSoftware’s Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon was a “major success” in Japan, with over 700,000 copies sold. International sales numbers for AC6 aren’t listed, but Kadokawa said “global sales are expected to grow in the second half of the year.”