Key Takeaways
- FromSoftware is working on multiple new projects in a “variety” of different genres.
- Job listings suggest that one of these games will be a new Armored Core, but what the others might be is anyone’s guess.
Earlier this year, Elden Ring developer FromSoftware put out a few job listings for “several new projects”. Details are still scarce, but CEO Hidetaka Miyazaki has shed a little light on what we can expect.
“There are multiple projects running and a variety of genres,” Miyazaki said in an interview with Game Watch (translated by DeepL). “Some of them are under my direction and some are directed by someone other than myself, so I think I can show you the new FromSoftware in many different ways.”
“A variety of genres” was prompted by the interviewer asking whether these games would be sci-fi or fantasy, which Miyazaki said he couldn’t reveal just yet. But combined with “I can show you the new FromSoftware in many different ways”, the studio looks to be branching out beyond Soulslikes. This lines up with those same job listings which focused on “mecha design”, likely for a new Armored Core game.
FromSoftware Has Done A Lot More Than Soulslikes
Miyazaki stressed once again that FromSoftware is not interested in Elden Ring 2 (although, he hasn’t ruled out developing the IP further), which leaves the door wide open for what these projects may be. It’s unlikely we’ll see Dark Souls 4, but perhaps we can look forward to new IP much like when FromSoftware introduced us to Sekiro and Bloodborne.
We’ll no doubt see a further development of the Soulslike formula somewhere in there, but FromSoftware’s rich and varied library shows that it’s capable of more than its most famous genre. Perhaps these projects will highlight that fact once again for a new audience.
FromSoftware got its start in the ’90s with the dungeon crawler King’s Field and the mecha action game Armored Core, before branching out into survival horror with Kuon and the card-based ARPG genre with Lost Kingdoms.
All we know is that its hiring for a “mecha” game and that a few projects are in the works under a variety of genres, ushering in a “new FromSoftware”. What those will look like is anyone’s guess, but take one look through the studio’s catalogue and it quickly becomes apparent that its capable of a lot more than Souls games. Hell, it once made an Animal Crossing-like.
With worldbuilding from Game of Thrones scribe George R.R. Martin and developed by FromSoftware, Elden Ring is a masterpiece in what has become known as the ‘Soulslike’ genre of action role-playing games.