Industry From Software quietly became the Sole Owner of the Elden Ring IP in 2023

[TD]

This explains a lot of the recent Bamco panic, From has long had a desire to get into global publishing...

This would also explain the insane delay on the Elden Ring DLC, they're likely focusing on what this move means for them.

Elden Ring trademarks goes through "change of ownership" that sees FromSoftware fully own its magnum opus

Bandai Namco is still on publishing duties

www.gamesradar.com

 

[Jon]

This makes me happy. Third parties publishers hurt IPs more than help. Yes, they help the financing, but it also prevents the development team from being able to be fully creative. I think back to the Mass Effect series. Bioware makes great games, but EA holds them back badly. Same with Respawn. They make great games, but EA holds them back...

EA is a problem in the industry, guys... in case you didn't know.

Publishers that allows the devs to do their thing are often more successful. I will wait for the DLC, but it'll be what? 3 years since the game came out? I mean, it worked for CD Projekt Red and the Phantom Liberty DLC for Cyberpunk, but they spent 3 years fixing a broken ass game first before DLC (good for them because they could have just scrapped it and went with making the new Witcher game). But Elden Ring was a glory from day one. And has had nothing for years. I worry this should have been something they just went on to the next game. If they are the sole owners of Elden Ring IP now... I don't think anyone will complain about Elden Ring 2.

 

[TD]

This makes me happy. Third parties publishers hurt IPs more than help.

Agreed. I think this is a great thing and for it to be one of my favourite game developers pleases me. It also makes me even more curious about this mystery PS5 exclusive From has been working on.

If they are the sole owners of Elden Ring IP now... I don't think anyone will complain about Elden Ring 2.

...time to be the minority.

Elden Ring is my 5th ranked From title and all 4 Souls titles come before it.

At the time of release, I was all in on the hype. As time has gone by, when I think of my best From experiences, none of them come from Elden Ring.

Don't get me wrong - it's a fantastic game but in hindsight I'm not as big a fan anymore. Too much riding around on a horse. The big draw of Elden Ring is the sense of discovery, which in my opinion makes replay attempts trivial albeit the first playthrough is great. The game also hits it's peak level design very early in my opinion.

I'm not sure when I'll get Shadow of the Erdtree, I will eventually - but I'm not in a rush.

 

[Jon]

Agreed. I think this is a great thing and for it to be one of my favourite game developers pleases me. It also makes me even more curious about this mystery PS5 exclusive From has been working on.

...time to be the minority.

Elden Ring is my 5th ranked From title and all 4 Souls titles come before it.

At the time of release, I was all in on the hype. As time has gone by, when I think of my best From experiences, none of them come from Elden Ring.

Don't get me wrong - it's a fantastic game but in hindsight I'm not as big a fan anymore. Too much riding around on a horse. The big draw of Elden Ring is the sense of discovery, which in my opinion makes replay attempts trivial albeit the first playthrough is great. The game also hits it's peak level design very early in my opinion.

I'm not sure when I'll get Shadow of the Erdtree, I will eventually - but I'm not in a rush.

I can understand that. Elden Ring was the first real From game I played. I've played Soulsborne LIKE games before, but that was the first full one. So, granted I'm a little jaded. That said, my only real point was that they would be capable of making Elden Ring 2 with less... corporatism than any other Souls or Bloodborne or Sekiro game. Not that anyone would complain, even if it is their lowest ranked title.

 

[TD]

Soulslikes were and arguably still are a very niche genre that don't appeal to everyone, From needed that "corporatism" to be able to get themselves into the spotlight. I mean, Demon's Souls which really started the trend was pushed into North America by Atlus. Those publishers helped From get to where they are, like it or not. I'm happy for From, but I don't think we can assume what the mold of their games look like solo before they start being published.

With the popularity of Elden Ring, I for one worry that they'll go exclusively open world and abandon their true strength - tight level design with jaw dropping interconnected worlds.

 

[Jon]

Soulslikes were and arguably still are a very niche genre that don't appeal to everyone, From needed that "corporatism" to be able to get themselves into the spotlight. I mean, Demon's Souls which really started the trend was pushed into North America by Atlus. Those publishers helped From get to where they are, like it or not. I'm happy for From, but I don't think we can assume what the mold of their games look like solo before they start being published.

With the popularity of Elden Ring, I for one worry that they'll go exclusively open world and abandon their true strength - tight level design with jaw dropping interconnected worlds.

That's fair. And let's not kid ourselves. All this TRULY means is that they can have more earmark for the design of Elden Ring games. They will still need a publisher partner. And that could still be Bandai, for all we know. Just that the creative design is more in the devs hands, which is a good thing.

Atlus, for what it's worth is a good dev as well. Persona anyone?

I hear the concern for open world, and why that's a concern. My bigger issue with it is that the design for a world like that is staggeringly long. I LOVED that most dungeons in Elden Ring were shorter. My biggest gripe with P5 was the time it took for each tower (yes I know, different games, but the concept of a big dungeon between smaller repetitive ones is what I'm getting at.

I loved the small dungeons to level up, in any order, with bigger more complex dungeons every so often. Nothing felt repetitive in Elden Ring to me (except the Erdtree warden fights). Smaller dungeons were all unique. Bigger dungeons were beautiful, challenging and rewarding. I mean, that Radahn fight was so fucking satisfying to me.

 

[TD]

My bigger issue with it is that the design for a world like that is staggeringly long.

Yeah, it takes a very long time. With the development time I'm hoping Shadow of the Erdtree is more an expansion than a DLC but time will tell.

I LOVED that most dungeons in Elden Ring were shorter.

I hated most of the small dungeons. Not because they were short, but because I felt them to be mostly mundane and repetitive. The game peaked at Stormveil for me. Unless you use a guide, it's very unlikely you'll uncover everything on your first blind attempt.

Nothing felt repetitive in Elden Ring to me (except the Erdtree warden fights). Smaller dungeons were all unique. Bigger dungeons were beautiful, challenging and rewarding. I mean, that Radahn fight was so fucking satisfying to me.

And this is where we have a different opinion but this could come from my enjoyment of earlier From titles - in earlier From titles the design of each dungeon varied greatly from dungeon to dungeon. Radahn was indeed a good fight and the atmosphere had most to do with it. Most boss are repeated at some point or get a lazy reskin.

I found many of the caves and catacombs to be downhill. After the "biggest dungeon", the game also hit a steep decline for me, personally.

 

[Raine]

With the popularity of Elden Ring, I for one worry that they'll go exclusively open world and abandon their true strength - tight level design with jaw dropping interconnected worlds.

Armored Core VI didn't want for questionable decisions, of course, but the director didn't want it to be Open World and neither From nor Namco pushed the issue.

So, YMMV and all, but that shouldn't be a higher ranking issue. I don't really think they have the staff to churn out successive giant worlds either, which is another limiting factor. AssCreed had ~2,000 people working on them a couple years back, as the most obvious and egregious example, while From has like 400 employees in totality.

 

[TD]

The fact you said AssCreed scares me because that's my fear with From.

 

[Raine]

Ubi-Factory became too sterile and lifeless for even themselves, to the point where sales were significantly impacted and they pressed all of the panic buttons simultaneously!

I think From's at least helmed by people smart enough to avoid that. Some other companies may be debatable though.

 

[TD]

I like your optimism so this is what I will go with... for now.

 

[Smacktard]

And this is where we have a different opinion but this could come from my enjoyment of earlier From titles - in earlier From titles the design of each dungeon varied greatly from dungeon to dungeon. Radahn was indeed a good fight and the atmosphere had most to do with it. Most boss are repeated at some point or get a lazy reskin.

This was my biggest problem with Bloodborne. Everything looks the same -- assets from the very start of the game are used throughout the rest of the game, the color palette barely changes, everything looks the same. The absolute worst offender for this were the Chalice Dungeons. They felt like such a hack-y way to artificially extend gameplay. To this day I still don't know why Bloodborne gets as much praise as it does.

 

[TD]

This was my biggest problem with Bloodborne. Everything looks the same -- assets from the very start of the game are used throughout the rest of the game, the color palette barely changes, everything looks the same. The absolute worst offender for this were the Chalice Dungeons. They felt like such a hack-y way to artificially extend gameplay. To this day I still don't know why Bloodborne gets as much praise as it does.

You and me both. I've grown to learn over time that one of the most important things in a game for me is level design, environment, and variety.

I'm with you on where Bloodborne falls short and I also don't understand how insatiably in love with this game it's fan base is. I supposed if you're incredibly into that kind of theme and that kind of theme only.

The chalice dungeons were so disappointing. Pre-release I was actually excited for it because on paper the idea sounded amazing. In practice? Horrible.

Now if for some game From can get that formula right? That'd be amazing.

 

[TD]

The trailer for Shadow of the Erdtree is here:

 

[Smacktard]

No I will NOT watch it
Yes I WILL mindlessly buy it (...some day)

 

[TD]

It's definitely pretty heavy on spoilers of what may happen.

I watched it because I'm not particularly sold on it. I'll wait until a bargain sale on it one day.

June release btw, if you didn't watch.

 

[Spiner202]

I haven't played Elden Ring (yet), but that DLC trailer looked so sick. I'll definitely pick up the DLC alongside the game eventually.