Why From Software Should Keep Large Scale Projects, but Not From Behind a Paywall!
As someone who is an admirer of From Software’s catalogue, but never an actual player, the idea that Elden Ring, its most popular game on the market in 2024, the idea of making a sequel to Elden Ring is lost on many fans and admirers alike.
With Shadow of the Erdtree release, the reality is that no true sequel to Elden Ring would come without a price. The price of admission for the player and the creators. For a creative entrepreneur like myself, the question always remains, how From Software can build on the large scale map design, but still retain the core audience or at least keep the momentum going.
According to Jester of Juice, a youtuber, he proclaims, “If From Soft is willing to put for the effort to create incredible large scale worlds like Elden Ring, and I believe many of you as well, would be willing to purchase many expensive small scale DLC’s that expand the map in small areas at various points. This would further fund their future projects allowing fans to show their appreciation and keep the game relevant for extended periods of time. On top of that the content would flesh out the more bare bones elements of the game and offer much more synergy than a single large lump of content after beating Mogh. For example take the jagged peak and place it directly after the Capital. Perhaps offering an additional route to the mountaintop of the giants. Replace one of the jagged peak drakes with the ghost flame dragon and I would have easily paid twenty dollars for that without hesitation.”
What I do disagree with in totality is the monetization of Elden Ring based purely off “synergy” from fans who were too busy to play all of Elden Ring in one long go. I get why Jester thinks this, but let’s be honest. The only reason Lord of the Rings was published into three books because it was a materials problem. You couldn’t put the entire trilogy into one accessible package back in the 1930’s.
Video games allow so much more exploration than books, because the software itself can build and build effortlessly through an internet download, and store the game on a system or computer alone with the right amount of Gigabyte storage. Video games are not like books, in that sense.
So, monetizing Elden Ring wouldn’t work for From Software because it wasn’t made to be consumed in pieces. And calling it a “gift” in 2021, Jester, is not a gift when everyone was off during Covid. Ultimately, the world now has Elden Ring, but hiding its extra content behind a paywall will not solve the problem of Elden Ring or FromSoftware’s game design. It just means that From Soft has to make smaller budget games alongside their big budget titles now.