Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree confirmed
FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have confirmed that an expansion for Elden Ring is currently being developed. It’s called Shadow of the Erdtree, does not have an official release date at this moment, and aside from an official artwork accompanying the announcement we don’t have an indication of what exactly the additional content will be about.
The artwork for Shadow of the Erdtree shows the usually bright and white Erdtree charred and crumbling, streams of lava flowing out of it like blood. The landscape is one of lush hills, which have ruins strewn all over them. We see our loyal mount and a familiar maiden sitting on it as they gaze upon the dying tree. Ghostly shades of graves surround not only them, but everything to the horizon – something truly ghastly must have happened.
The artwork for Shadow of the Erdtree.
FromSoftware
Elden Ring, which was released in 2022 to critical acclaim, sold over 20 million copies so far, becoming FromSoftware’s greatest hit. The open-world RPG’s story and lore – told not in the traditional manner through cutscenes and such, but purely through player interactions with its world – is the common brainchild of Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin. This way of storytelling has garnered attention from other industry members such as Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann.
It takes traditional elements and aesthetics from previous FromSoftware games such as Dark Souls, which is evident in the great design of the Elden Ring bosses. The story follows several paths with different endings, such as the complicated Lord of Frenzied Flame ending.
Elden Ring has so far been supported with several updates, which completed a few unfinished quest lines and added enhanced PvP functionalities.
Shadow of the Erdtree, as an expansion, will be a lot more substantial in terms of content, though of course it’s hard to say right now what exactly this release will have in store – that goes for content and story.
