The Game Awards were packed with a number of surprising announcements this year, but few were as surprising as Elden Ring: Neightreign, a standalone co-op title set in the Elden Ring universe. Of course, multiplayer isn’t something that FromSoftware has ever known to specialize in, even if several of their titles have had acclaimed multiplayer mechanics, but though Nightreign is obviously going to be a multiplayer experience, FromSoftware says it’s not going to be a live service one.
Speaking in an interview with PC Gamer, the co-op title’s director, Junya Ishizaki stated that the studio isn’t designing Elden Ring: Nightreign as a live service title, with the plan being to deliver a “complete package” right out the gate.
“With Nightreign, we wanted to have a game that felt like a complete package out of the box on the day of purchase, so everything is unlockable, everything is contained with that purchase. It’s not what we’d consider a ‘live service’ game,” he said.
For now, FromSoftware’s focus is on getting Nightreign out the door, and though there aren’t any concrete plans in place yet, once the game is out, the developer will make decisions on how to proceed forward. That said, players can, of course, expect balance updates and patches as and when necessary, regardless of what post-launch plans FromSoftware lands on.
“Of course we’re concentrating on the release of Nightreign, first and foremost,” Ishizaki said. “But we will make considerations after the game’s release. Especially in the form of post-release updates—balance updates, things like this that we’ve done with previous games—this will definitely be a priority going forward. For anything else, we’re still in the process of thinking about the possibilities.”
Additionally, FromSoftware has also confirmed that the co-op title won’t be a full-priced release. You can instead expect it to be priced similarly to Elden Ring’s expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, which, for reference is priced at $39.99.
Elden Ring: Nightreign is in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.