Your Expectations For Elden Ring DLC Are Too High

The long wait for Elden Ring‘s announced DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, has been great for building anticipation, but it runs the risk of expectations climbing too high. The base game is coming up on its second anniversary, and the DLC announcement itself is almost a year old as well. The excitement around Elden Ring prior to its release was almost unprecedented, with prospective players waiting years after its announcement trailer before more footage was shown. Similar excitement is building for Shadow of the Erdtree, but it may be fundamentally unable to deliver the same pay-off as the base game.

Elden Ring was initially revealed at E3 2019, but fell off the radar until a new trailer was dropped two years later in June 2021. It wouldn’t release until February 2022, but the excitement of FromSoftware fans, stellar reviews, and weeks of glowing word-of-mouth praise resulted in Elden Ring being the developer’s most successful title yet. While the game’s most dedicated fans are likely still roaming the Lands Between, completing new game plus runs and duking it out in the PvP Colosseums, many other players are sure to be waiting for Shadow of the Erdtree before returning to the acclaimed RPG.

Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Still Has No Release Date

Much like the base game, Elden Ring‘s DLC has received no significant news since it was revealed. Most recently, an earnings report from the parent company of FromSoftware, Kadokawa, reaffirmed that development was still coming along, according to VGC. The company is, however, still adamant that Shadow of the Erdtree has no set release date, nor even a release window. “The release timing of DLC for Elden Ring has not yet been announced, but development is proceeding smoothly,” according to the presentation, with a subsequent Q&A response reaffirming that a release date for Shadow of the Erdtree is not ready to be announced.

No Elden Ring DLC News May Only Heighten Expectations

Ever since the influential release of Dark Souls (which built on its predecessor, Demon’s Souls), dedicated fans of FromSoftware have awaited each of the studio’s new titles with bated breath. Such anticipation reached a fever pitch prior to Elden Ring, which was essentially billed after its initial reveal as a successor to the Dark Souls trilogy, taking its dark fantasy trappings to a more broadly explorable game world. With Shadow of the Erdtree, history is beginning to repeat itself. At the time of Kadokawa’s earnings report, it’s been nearly nine months since the Elden Ring DLC was announced, and with only a single piece of concept art revealed, excitement only continues to build for excitement’s sake.

Where Elden Ring seems to have either met or exceeded expectations, Shadow of the Erdtree is in a different situation. As an expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree is unlikely to overhaul the FromSoftware formula as significantly as Elden Ring itself. This is reasonable, of course, but the DLC’s lengthy development with no significant updates on what content to expect allows for imaginations to run wild. Shadow of the Erdtree is most likely to deliver more of the same, just with new items, areas, and storylines. That’ll surely be enough for most waiting players, but it’s still best to keep expectations in check while waiting for a trailer, lest foolish ambitions be unfortunately put to a disappointed rest when Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree does finally release.