A new Elden Ring game is coming — and it’s not Elden Ring 2. Revealed Thursday at The Game Awards 2024, Elden Ring Nightreign is a new multiplayer cooperative spinoff of FromSoftware’s 2022 action role-playing game, and it’s coming next year.
Existing Elden Ring players may be thinking, “But… Elden Ring is already a multiplayer cooperative game…?” That’s true, but the new Elden Ring game is something else entirely. Elden Ring Nightreign is described as a “multiplayer co-op action survival” game where three players will have to work together on an “ever-changing map” to defeat a “Nightlord”, according to a press release. In other words: It’s a lot like a roguelike with procedurally generated runs.
The whole thing will take place in Limveld, a location set in a “universe parallel to the events of Elden Ring.” Players will have eight unique characters — each with their own ultimate ability — to choose from before diving into each expedition. Over the course of three in-game days, you will fight bosses and collect loot to prepare you for the final battle against the Nightlord. But don’t worry, dying to the Nightlord won’t cost you everything; players will keep relics from each run to “customize and upgrade their characters” to fit their playstyle.
In the trailer, we saw several large-scale boss battles and traversal options for fighting monsters alongside other players. The packed trailer teased what looks like an entirely new landmass that will have new ways for you to explore it, including the ability to grab onto a ghostly eagle to fly, or to clamber up walls.
Elden Ring fans will surely pick apart all the new weapons and spells in the trailer, but we can already spot some exciting new additions, like the ability to sprout wings and dive down onto enemies. Given the sizes of some of the bosses near the end of the trailer, you’ll probably need everything in your arsenal to take them down. One fight against a a man riding a giant wolf resembles the sandy arena where Radahn is located, but bleached and covered in fire. Curiously, there’s also a blue circle that seems to move inward, which suggests you’ll have to stay mobile to avoid getting swallowed by it before the run ends.
The original Elden Ring was released in 2022 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, and Elden Ring Nightreign will be available on those same platforms in 2025.
Earlier this year, Reuters reported that Chinese company Tencent was working on a mobile version of the Elden Ring IP. Tencent has created adaptations of popular franchises like Call of Duty, Monster Hunter, and PUBG. We’re still waiting to hear how Tencent and one of its subsidiaries might interpret the Elden Ring series for a cellphone-gaming audience.