After several months of silence, Elden Ring’s first premium expansion may finally be available following several updates to the game’s Steam database entry were recently released with weeks to go before its second-year anniversary.
Over the past 24 hours, the Elden Ring subreddit has seen eagle-eyed observers pointing out suspect updates uploaded to the game’s database entry on the industry-leading digital games distribution platform.
No one outside of FromSoftware employees can decrypt the entries made on SteamDB. It is, however, proof that something is going on.
The depot, QA release, in particular, suggests this is for testing alternate builds of Elden Ring. Most likely, FromSoftware is holding similar tests on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X. Unfortunately, unlike Steam, console platforms don’t have a public API.
Of course, these tests aren’t indicative of anything significant – yet. Specifically, we can’t say for sure if the updates are for a build featuring Shadow of the Erdtree, Elden Ring’s first and only premium expansion (s o far). For all we know, it could be another free update, like the Colosseum Update, for Elden Ring, which came out in December 2022.
Nevertheless, these tests prove that we’re moving closer to a potential launch if not a release date announcement.
Elden Ring was released on PC, Xbox Series S/X, and PlayStation 5 in February 2022. It didn’t take long for the open-world Soulsborne to capture the hearts of fans and it quickly became FromSoftware’s most lucrative project yet. Perhaps more importantly, the game went on win a record-breaking amount of accolades by year’s end. It’s now the most GOTY’ed video game of all time, surpassing The Last of Us Part 2 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
It’s unclear if FromSoftware has plans to do a sequel to Elden Ring. Bandai Namco once said it’s considering expanding the universe that George R.R. Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, helped create. Recent listings suggest that FromSoftware is already working on its next project.
