The owners of Elden Ring developers FromSoftware have dampened hopes that long-awaited DLC Shadow of the Erdtree might release in time for the soulslike’s second anniversary this month – despite recent rumours and behind-the-scenes Steam updates indicating otherwise.
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All we’ve seen officially of Shadow of the Erdtree is a single teaser image released close to a year ago, a few days after Elden Ring’s first anniversary on February 25th. The announcement confirmed a name, the fact that DLC was in development and… that was about it. Still, the image of what appeared to be Miquella and Torrent riding through a field full of ruins toward the Erdtree was enough to set plenty of theories flying about how an expansion focused on the brother of Malenia, key to much of Elden Ring’s lore, might tie into the game.
FromSoft themselves have said little since about the expansion, aside from popping up occasionally to assure us that, yes, they’re still working on it. In the absence of any official word, committed fans have since unearthed signs that Shadow of the Erdtree’s release date might land sometime this month – around the time of Elden Ring’s second anniversary.
Those signs included the accidental retailer leak of materials for Elden Ring-themed controllers last year, which pointed at their launch in February around the first DLC, as well as passing reference to a potential second “major key beat or new game expansion” apparently due to follow in 2025. While the product sheet swiftly vanished, the rumours and hopes persisted.
An impending release was given additional hope by a backend update to Elden Ring’s Steam release spotted last month, which amended its DLC section with mysterious title “SteamDB Unknown App 2778580” – the first new “DLC” to appear for the PC version since a digital artbook, OST, gesture and guide were added largely around the time of its original release.
So, all signs – unconfirmed as they might be – pointed at Shadow of the Erdtree arriving in February. Yet that hypothesis has taken a fresh blow direct from FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa, who headed off questions about a release date for the Elden Ring DLC in the FAQ section of their latest financial report, as spotted by Eurogamer.
Responding directly to a query about the “development status” for Elden Ring DLC, Kadokawa confirmed yet again that “we are currently working hard on the development of DLC for Elden Ring”, but went on to add that “we have not announced a release date at this time”. So no new news, then.
Elsewhere in the report, Kadokawa acknowledged that sales of Elden Ring remain “steady” year-on-year – an impressive showing for a game about to enter its third year – and indicated that FromSoftware might not be done with the game after Shadow of the Erdtree, as they plan to “further step up efforts to improve profitability in the medium to long term”.
That translates to “various measures” already in the works for Elden Ring, including the development of “major DLC” – which could mean just Shadow of the Erdtree, but when taken in combination with the suggestion of longer-term efforts could well mean future expansions too. We’ll presumably find out more once Shadow of the Erdtree finally arrives, though that may now be a little later than we’ve recently assumed.
