Elden Ring Dev Says Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is Game's First & Last Expansion

FromSoftware President Hidetaka Miyazaki said that Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC will be the game's first and last expansion.

He said that the company has no plans to create further DLC content after the first expansion releases in June 2024. Miyazaki also noted that the developer would rather release a major expansion than split additional content into many parts.

Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC

Elden Ring Dev Says Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is Game's First & Last Expansion — FromSoftware boss Hidetaka Miyazaki said that the company has no plans to release further expansions for Elden Ring after the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.
(Photo : FromSoftware / Screenshot taken from Steam)

He argued that the latter would reduce the freedom of exploration and sense of adventure that the game offers. The announcement comes a few months after the FromSoftware boss did not rule out making an Elden Ring sequel or even having a second expansion for the highly popular souls-like game.

While his stance on an Elden Ring DLC may have changed, his view on a potential sequel remains the same. This means that FromSoftware is keeping its doors open to a possible follow-up to Elden Ring.

Miyazaki was also the director behind Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne before creating Elden Ring. In February, he said that they do not want this to be the end of the Elden Ring saga, which is something similar to what they said at the end of Dark Souls 3, according to Video Games Chronicle.

The game director also said that they did not want to disregard the possibilities or put a pin in them at the time. He added that the developer may have some more ideas for Elden Ring in the future.

He added that Elden Ring emphasizes exploration and adventure in a big open world, noting that a vast and huge setting is inevitably needed to provide such an experience.

This means not splitting the expansion into several parts and just making one big DLC content pack. Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is set to be released on June 21, 2024.

Furthermore, Elden Ring's success among players, particularly after Bandai Namco claimed that it had shipped 23 million copies in two years, may encourage FromSoftware further to make a sequel, said IGN.

First and Last Expansion

Miyazaki was also asked about how long it would take for players to complete Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. He then brought up memories of being called a liar after he estimated in a previous interview that the base game would only take about 30 hours of play to complete.

The latter statement came as HowLongToBeat, a crowdsourced game-length database, puts Elden Ring's "main story" estimate closer to 60 hours. Other games in the Dark Souls franchise have also had additional content split across multiple episodic DLCs.

The FromSoftware boss also talked about the difficulty of the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, saying that it would match the legendary difficulty of the base game's second half.

He noted that the expansion was designed with the expectation that players "should already have a certain understanding of the game."

However, players who have grinded their characters to become unstoppable forces of nature will be able to turn off the leveling system in the DLC area so that they can face some additional difficulty, according to ArsTechnica.