Given the success of Elden Ring, we’re undoubtedly going to get a sequel someday, but it also wouldn’t be surprising if its open world formula influenced other future FromSoftware games too. However, Elden Ring director and studio president Hidetaka Miyazaki doesn’t sound keen on the idea of having every game FromSoftware makes be open world.
Ahead of the launch of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Miyazaki sat down with GameSpot to discuss Elden Ring‘s development and the future of FromSoftware. When asked if open world games will now serve as a new baseline for the studio, Miyazaki downplayed the possibility: “I wouldn’t necessarily say that open world is going to become the new base or foundation or standard of the company. … We have a lot of game directors and designers who are growing, so we’d love to keep an open mind in terms of the types of games that we develop.”
He continued, “I can’t really say anything at this exact moment, but perhaps when you see future announcements from FromSoftware you’ll look back at this point and think, “Ah, that’s what he meant.”” Basically, Miyazaki isn’t ruling out more open world games in the future, but they won’t be the only thing the studio will focus on.
The amount of freedom Elden Ring offers with its non-linear structure is certainly one of its strengths, and I doubt this will change for the inevitable sequel. However, it’s good to know FromSoftware won’t be applying this structure to every game it makes. Otherwise, they’d all risk blending together and feeling awfully similar. Not to mention they’d require incredibly long development times and thus increase the wait in-between games.
Miyazaki’s comment about keeping an open mind on the sort of games the studio develops also makes me hopeful that we’ll see FromSoftware diversify its portfolio a little. Hopefully, the success of mecha combat game Armored Core 6 means the studio will get back into that series, but it’d be nice if it got to branch out into other genres, even ones it’s dabbled in before. FromSoftware tried its hand at an adventure game with 2018’s Déraciné, and I know more than a few people would love to see it do another mission-based third-person shooter like Metal Wolf Chaos.
