Elden Ring Creator Hidetaka Miyazaki on Shadow of the Erdtree, New Weapons and More

Hidetaka Miyazaki’s interviews around Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree put the expansion’s new weapons in a wider context: a new land and story centered on Miquella, an intentionally expansive adventure, and the demanding combat that remains a FromSoftware hallmark. The expansion launched worldwide on June 21, 2024; it is available as additional content for the base game, not as a standalone game.

What Miyazaki’s interviews reveal about Shadow of the Erdtree

In interviews published around the expansion’s release, Miyazaki discussed both its place in Elden Ring and the design principles behind the game. GameSpot’s June 17, 2024 interview framed Shadow of the Erdtree as the completion of Elden Ring’s story. The conversation also touched on the project’s scale and FromSoftware’s growth; Miyazaki described the expansion as larger in scope than the studio’s earlier work and as a foundation for developing talent. Those remarks describe his view at the time, not a statement of the studio’s plans today.

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The Guardian’s June 21, 2024 interview offered a useful lens on the game’s open world. Miyazaki said, “Elden Ring, by its open world nature and game design, lends the player more freedom.” He described that freedom as a way for players to leave an obstacle and pursue another route without abandoning the severity of the challenge.

What is new in the expansion?

FromSoftware’s official announcement describes a new setting, the Land of Shadow, and a story following Miquella. Its account connects the land to Marika and the Erdtree and introduces Messmer as part of the expansion’s setting and story. Publisher materials also confirm additions to gameplay, including weapons, armor, sorceries, and skills.

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The official product information confirms new weapons but does not give a count or name the new weapon categories. A precise category total should therefore not be inferred from the publisher’s description.

How the new setting fits the game

Shadow of the Erdtree is a continuation of Elden Ring, rather than a separate campaign unrelated to its world. Its Land of Shadow provides a new setting for the story of Miquella, while the official materials link the expansion’s history and characters to the wider world shaped by Marika and the Erdtree. Miyazaki’s description of the expansion as completing the story, reported by GameSpot and The Guardian in June 2024, gives it a defined place in the narrative; it should not be read as a promise about what FromSoftware might make in the future.

How the expansion’s challenge relates to Elden Ring’s design

Freedom to change direction does not mean the game stops being difficult. In a Game Informer interview published June 24, 2024, Miyazaki described designing challenges partly from the perspective of what he would want to face as a player: “I think of all of the different ways I want to be killed as a gamer and as a player, and thinking about the difficult curve and certain challenges that we placed in front of other players is something that, as a gamer, I just hoped or wished would exist as an experience.”

Read alongside his comments to The Guardian, the design idea is not simply to make the world easier to traverse. Players can respond to a roadblock by exploring elsewhere, but the combat still delivers the deliberate difficulty Miyazaki values.

Release date, platforms, and access requirements

FromSoftware announced a worldwide release date of June 21, 2024. Official release materials list PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Steam/PC. Platform and package availability can vary by region.

The expansion is downloadable content and requires the base game. Players must also progress through the base game to a certain extent before they can begin the expansion. A physical Shadow of the Erdtree Edition package was announced for PS5 and PS4 with the base game and an expansion code; the expansion-only product does not include the base game. Check the specific listing and region before buying, since package contents and availability differ.

What the sales figures mean

In a February 22, 2024 announcement, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco said more than 23 million units of Elden Ring had been shipped worldwide. In its June 2024 expansion-launch announcement, Bandai Namco Entertainment America gave a later figure of more than 25 million copies sold for the base game. These are distinct publisher statements, with different wording and dates, rather than a single directly comparable measurement.

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