The Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC expansion was only announced this year, but it seems like it has been in the works for quite some time, judging from some recent findings.
As reported by Ziostorm on Twitter, lead game designer Kenneth Chan recently updated their LinkedIn profile, confirming that their lead game designer for the expansion as well, and that it has been in the works since April 2022, only two months after the base launched. As FromSoftware didn’t show anything other than some artwork when the expansion was announced, many were convinced development wasn’t that far ahead, but it definitely seems like this wasn’t the case.
A new LinkedIn post appears to show that Elden Ring DLC has been in development since at least April 2022.
Indicating over a year of development for Shadow of the Erdtree so far.
This is updated from a section that said “unannounced project” back in March.
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VERY Interesting… pic.twitter.com/9XWQ1r3r9g— Ziostorm (@Ziostorm1) April 25, 2023
Unfortunately, FromSoftware hasn’t talked much about the Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree expansion, so we do not know exactly how it will expand the already huge experience of their successful open-world action role-playing game. A release date has yet to be announced, although rumors say that it should release in late 2023 and after Armored Core VI, the long-anticipated new entry in one of FromSoftware’s classic series.
While Elden Ring hasn’t received much additional content since release, FromSoftware did add some features to their game, such as PvP arenas, which I found to be nothing more than a simple and not-too-rewarding diversion, and ray tracing support. Unfortunately, the implementation of ray tracing is far from being the best, as it tanks performance on all ray tracing-capable hardware and doesn’t offer massive visual improvements. On PC, however, ray tracing performance will eventually be improved on NVIDIA RTX cards thanks to a DLSS mod that is currently in development.
Elden Ring is now available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One worldwide. The Shadow Of The Erdtree expansion will launch later this year on all formats. You can learn more about the game by checking out my review.
