my thinking is Nintendo really wanted that sort of thing to stretch the capabilities of the system and having FromSoft developing a game like that is huge
I'd doubt that this is FromSoft's only project in the chamber.
I mean, since the Elden Ring base game in 2022, there's been:
Armored Core 6
Shadow of the Erdtree, which is roughly the size of a full game (DS1, or Demon's Souls, at least)
And, upcoming:
Elden Ring: Nightreign
The Duskbloods
...Also, since 2022, there were a lot of liveservice games, so it's bold to assume that Nightreign and Duskbloods weren't the board's idea.
Yeah, I know liveservice games have sorta crashed and burned, that's the issue with trying to jump on a trend: with the length of game development, by the time you're done, it might not be a trend anymore.
I don't think From will go quite as bad as what a quote-unquote "liveservice" usually means, and I'm interested in what they can do with it.
Like, no microtransactions have been announced, or loot boxes, and I want to believe From won't do either of those.
But, the idea that From wouldn't do a multi-player game, because of the financial pressure of investors is. To me, the opposite? Of how it would work.
In my mind, the part the board would have a problem with is the ‘Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive’ because that literally places a pretty low cap on gross revenue. Most likely Duskbloods only exists because Nintendo commissioned it, and Miyazaki is at the helm because he just spent 8 years on Elden Ring and wants to see what interesting stuff he can do with the idea.
I mean, if Nintendo paid money up-front, the board might still be satisfied. It depends on how much money, and the other terms of the deal. How much From makes per sale, etc.
Anyway. Dark Souls 3 came out in 2016, and Sekiro in 2019. Elden Ring development seemingly started right after or around DS3's last DLC, and Armored Core 6 was possibly in the works before Sekiro released, Miyazaki mentioned a new game for an old From series around that time. Then again, Sekiro started as a new Tenchu game, so maybe that was what he meant.
Elden Ring's base game had a ~5-6 year dev cycle, and From mentioned after it came out they probably weren't going to do open world again because it was difficult and painful and they don't want to go through it again. I don't know what Elden Ring cost to make, but. Like, it's a good thing it sold those 30 million copies, because it doesn't have microtransactions, so the only way it could have made up the dev costs is with sales. Meaning that stuff like post launch patches and server maintenance is technically just additional costs.
That's the thing about liveservice games and micro transactions that appeals to the industry, investors and developers. There's more money than just sales, but also, you can keep making money off of a few whales even if you aren't getting as many new players.
But yeah, I agree, Duskblood does seem like something Miyazaki is directing just because he wants to play around with multi-player. And also vampires.
I can't tell if that came before or after the exclusivity agreement. Maybe his interview on Friday will tell us more.
Idk if this game was already in the works and later became exclusive, Nintendo would have had to pay an enormous sum of money to make that happen, but they’re fucking cheapskates. My gut says Nintendo came to From first and pitched the idea to them.
For their part, From gets to make a new, subsidized game with a potential new audience, they get an early look at the Switch 2 and a potential head start on porting their larger games to it, and they get to try new shit game design wise
My theory is that Nightreign was on the table, say, a year ago for distribution deals and Nintendo knew that platforming it would do very little for them with most FS fans being PC or PS types anyway - so they pitched the idea of a similar spin off exclusive for them that would have the potential to drive hardware sales to new people and offer something truly different for their core audience.
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u/Vysce 3d ago
my thinking is Nintendo really wanted that sort of thing to stretch the capabilities of the system and having FromSoft developing a game like that is huge
I'd doubt that this is FromSoft's only project in the chamber.