FromSoftware has announced that the next Elden Ring update will roll out on Thursday, June 20, and has shared an overview of the patch notes. The update will coincide with the launch of Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, and will bring new features, bug fixes, and balance adjustments.

Elden Ring base game and Shadow of the Erdtree DLC update patch notes — an overview (June 20, 2024)

Elden Ring will undergo server maintenance for several hours on June 20 to deploy the update, after which you can expect to see the following:

New Inventory features:

• Newly obtained items will be marked with a “!“.
• A new tab called “Recent Items” has been added to review recently obtained items.

New Summoning Pool features:

• Active Summoning Pools will now be carried over to NG+.
• Individual Summoning Pools can now be enabled / disabled in the newly added Map Functions Menu. Only active Summoning Pools will be selected when using the Small Golden Effigy.

New hairstyles:

• Five new hairstyles have been added to the game. They can be selected during character creation, using the Clouded Mirror Stand or using Rennala’s Rebirth feature.

Complete patch notes detailing all the bug fixes and balance adjustments will be available nearer the time.

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Ace Combat 8 release date window is among a lengthy list of unannounced games and their launch info leaked by an actor’s resume. Bandai Namco has previously confirmed that it’s working on the next Ace Combat game, but it has yet to be officially announced.

Ace Combat 8 release date might be sooner than we think

If the leak is correct, Ace Combat 8 is scheduled for release sometime in 2025. However, take this with a grain of salt because this information comes from a rather poorly redacted resume. The actor in question is Mike Bodie, whose profile is hosted on one of U.K.’s biggest casting website, Spotlight.com (via Reddit, ResetEra).

The resume also lists Supermassive Games’ The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020 for release in 2025 along with Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion and The House of the Dead 2 remake. The games are listed as abbreviations, but not only are some of the abbreviations very obvious, they carry the names of their publishers, so the resume pretty much gives everything away.

There is speculation that one of the games code named “OAHU” by Gearbox is Borderlands 4, and it is also listed for release in 2025. A mafia-themed game is also listed in the resume but it doesn’t carry the publisher’s name so it’s unclear if it’s the rumored Mafia 4 or not.

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FromSoftware announced that Elden Ring sales have passed a very impressive milestone two years after its release. The studio also thanked fans for helping the game reach such staggering heights.

What milestone did Elden Ring sales surpass?

Elden Ring’s sales recently exceeded 25 million, according to FromSoftware. “We have come a long way together,” the studio said on Twitter. “We are ever thankful for your passion and support.” It accompanies the announcement with an image of Melina the Tarnished sitting around a Site of Grace.

By comparison, Elden Ring’s 25 million sales are approximately the same as GTA 4, Cyberpunk 2077, and Monster Hunter: World. It also secures the game’s place in the top 50 best-selling games of all time. While it probably isn’t going to outsell Minecraft or GTA 5 any time soon, that’s still a hugely impressive milestone.

Granted, it’s not entirely surprising that FromSoftware’s dark fantasy action RPG saw such an impressive milestone. Elden Ring launched in February 2022, with its sales exceeding 13.4 Million by the end of March. It was the second best-selling game in the US that year, behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, and slowly grew over the following years. Bandai Namco announced that Elden Ring sold 23 million copies in February 2024.

It seems fair to assume that the game’s upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC played a significant role in its sales. Releasing on June 21, Elden Ring’s only expansion takes players to the mysterious Land of Shadow. It features an all-new world space with new enemies, dungeons, and more.

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Little Nightmares 3 has been delayed according to a statement from the developer, Supermassive Games. The game was originally due to be released this year for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, but that will no longer be the case as they “give the game the care and love it deserves.”

The new Little Nightmares 3 release date window

Little Nightmares 3 will now be released in 2025. While the new release date is vague, fans will be hoping for something more specific when Supermassive Games and publisher Bandai Namco share more information “later this summer.”

Since the game’s announcement last year, the duo “have been working hard towards delivering the best experience possible for the next entry in the franchise.” The statement continued that “as much as we can’t wait for you to return to the Nowhere, we also want to make sure we give the game the care and love it deserves”. For this reason, the game has been delayed.

The upcoming game will introduce two new protagonists, Low and Alone, who each have their own “iconic items.” They’re trapped within the Spiral, which is “a cluster of disturbing places” like the mysterious desert of Necropolis, a fun fair, and a gloomy factory. Each place is “full of delusions” and new enemies like ominous beetles and a giant baby.

The duo needs to look for a way to escape the Nowhere and avoid the “even greater threat lurking in the shadows.” With two prominent characters, players can take on the campaign on their own or with a friend in co-op.

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Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launches on June 21, and fans are excited about the upcoming expansion. From Software fanned the flames on Tuesday by premiering the DLC’s new story trailer. Fans get a glimpse of the expansion

backstory and teases some of the characters players will encounter.

Shadow of the Erdtree trailer features Miquella and Mesmer

“Miquella the Kind spoke of the beginning,” the narrator begins. “The seduction. And the betrayal. An affair from which Gold arose. And so too was Shadow born.”

Elden Ring players were already aware that Shadow of the Erdtree heavily features the demigod Miquella. They’ve also been introduced to antagonist Mesmer the Impaler and his menacing red snakes.

The new trailer goes on to recount how Mesmer carried out a brutal war using both human soldiers and the colossal walking braziers seen in earlier promotional materials. This led to Miquella abandoning his fate, but some of his followers still believe in him. Viewers see a group of them gathered at the end of the trailer in front of what seems to be the Realm of Shadows equivalent of the Sites of Grace scattered around The Lands Between.

The trailer still leaves plenty of questions, as Elden Ring fans would expect. The trailer’s narrator is also one of Miquella’s followers, and From Software sometimes has a thing for unreliable narrators. Therefore, it may be that fans shouldn’t necessarily take everything she says at face value.

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Summer Game Fest has revealed the publishers and studios appearing at the June 7 event. 55 partners are participating, including big names like Sony and Xbox and smaller players like Devolver Digital and Anapurna Interactive.

Summer Game Fest 2024 confirms 55 partners

Summer Game Fest revealed the list of Round 1 2024 partners on Thursday. In addition to Xbox and PlayStation, major publishers include Ubisoft, EA, Sega, Epic, Bandai Namco, Capcom, 2K, and WB Games. Amazon Games and Nefilx Games will also make a showing, as will companies including Focus Entertainment, Funcom, Plaion, Deep Silver, and Niantic. Other parties include Steam, Meta, and Samsung, though it’s unclear to what extent they will directly participate in the events.

A complete list of all 55 confirmed Summer Game Fest 2024 partners is below:

Launched as a digital-only event in 2021, Summer Game Fest has filled the gap left behind by E3’s shutdown. The main 2024 event goes live from YouTube Theater in LA at 2:00 PM Pacific/5:00 PM Eastern on June 7. It’s followed by the Wholesome Direct indie game showcase, Latin American Games Showcase, and Women-Led Games showcase on June 8. Finally, the Xbox Games Showcase and PC Gaming Show air on June 9.

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Bandai Namco is giving Elden Ring fans an opportunity to win a life-sized statue of Messmer the Impaler, along with other prizes. The ten-foot sculpture is the grand prize for participants in the Shadow of the Erdtree Return to Grace Video Contest.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Return to Grace Video Contest accepting submissions

With Shadow of the Erdtree on the horizon, the publisher invites players to submit fan-made trailers showing their love for the dark fantasy action RPG.

“Join us and upload your video celebrating Elden Ring and in return we will honor the top entries with a small gesture of our gratitude,” says the page on Bandai Namco’s website. “Show us your deep understanding of the world of Elden Ring and ability to capture its story,” it goes on to say.

“Small” must be a relative term, as the grand prize for Best Trailer is a life-sized statue of boss Messmer the Impaler. Meanwhile, Best Narrative, Best Action, and Best Direction winners get a life-sized replica of Malenia’s mechanical arm. Finally, winning Best Comedy, Best Use of Sound, Best Armor Design, and Most Original Use of Elden Ring earn fans the Helmet of Messemer the Impaler.

Submissions opened on May 6 and ends on the night of June 2. The trailer must be under 5 minutes long and have Elden Ring in the title. Submissions can use their own gameplay captures and official assets but cannot infringe on third-party copyrights. Participants must then upload it publicly on YouTube, Vimeo, or Twitter/X before completing the sign-up form on the official site.

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Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launches on June 30, and FromSoftware has indicated that it’s pretty substantial. Unfortunately, director Hidetaka Miyazaki recently confirmed it will be the game’s only DLC. However, he also hinted that fans may finally get an answer to one of Elden Ring’s biggest remaining mysteries.

Elden Ring’s director talks about Shadow of the Erdtree

Miyazaki recently spoke to the Chinese-language publication Campfire Camp about the upcoming Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. He confirmed that this is the only DLC but also explained why.

Said Miyazaki: “Elden Ring emphasizes the exploration and adventure of the big world . . . Therefore, instead of splitting it into several parts, it is better to simply make one big [expansion]. If they were sold separately, the freedom of exploration and sense of adventure would be reduced.”

The Elden Ring director also indicated that the DLC would answer lingering questions from the base game. He understandably didn’t get into spoilers, but one example is the relationship between the demigod Miquella and St. Trina. The game implies a connection between the two, with many fans suspecting they are the same person. In the interview, he described them as “different existences” but wasn’t ready to reveal the nature of their relationship. “What can be said is that [Trina] will indeed appear in the DLC, and the relationship between the two will be further explained.”

However, fans shouldn’t expect too many other Elden Ring characters to appear in the flesh in Shadow of the Erdtree. The two stories are mostly separate, and beyond possible bug fixes, the DLC won’t alter anything in the base game.

Shadow of the Erdtree also doesn’t have a specific “end” in the same way as the base Elden Ring. However, players will still make choices that affect the DLC’s story.

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It’s no secret that games are getting more expensive, and Katsuhiro Harada says that Tekken 8 costs three times as much to develop as its predecessor. The Tekken 8 Executive Producer brought this up in defense of the game’s live-service elements.

Tekken 8 Executive Producer Katsuhiro Harada defends microtransactions

Micro-transactions are a well-established practice that never stopped being controversial. It’s therefore unsurprising that Tekken 8’s live-service features created a lot of discourse online.

While some fans are highly critical of the practice, the conversation prompted Executive Producer Katsuhiro Harada to chime in with his own arguments. According to Harada, who‘s worked on the franchise since its inception, microtransactions are necessary in modern game development. He says they are the only way Bandai Namco and Arika can afford to support the game post-release.

“Development costs are now 10 times more expensive than in the 90s and more than double or nearly triple the cost of Tekken 7.”

He pointed out that Tekkan 8 is the first game to feature online play, which costs money to maintain. Harada also explained that the company needs microtransactions to pay for Tekken 8’s patches and updates.

However, he also had some choice words for one of Tekken 8’s critics.

“The economic situation and everything else is changing,” said Harada. “If we simply do nothing as he suggests, the game will simply stop running in a few months. I think that is what he wants. So there is no point in talking to him about these realities. He wants us to stop economic activity and stop updating and supporting the game.”

While Harada may speak for many publishers, there are a few recent counterexamples. Baldur’s Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 both saw multiple and extensive post-launch updates, and neither incorporated live-service elements. Granted, there is room for debate about how comparable those situations are to Tekken 8s. However, it’s understandable if some might feel like Harada is making excuses.

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FromSoftware‘s Hidetaka Miyazaki has denied that Elden Ring 2 is in the works. In fact, FromSoftware has no plans for a sequel at present, but hasn’t ruled out the possibility of making one either. Published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s most successful game to date, marked by both critical and commercial successes.

Elden Ring 2 might not be published by Bandai Namco, if it’s ever made

In an interview with IGN ahead of the launch of Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Miyazaki said that FromSoftware wants to leave the door open for a sequel but there’s no guarantee that it’ll make one. “We don’t want to say this is the end of the Elden Ring saga for now,” he explained. “I think we said a similar thing at the end of Dark Souls 3. We didn’t want to flatten those possibilities or put a pin in them just at that time, and it’s a similar story with Elden Ring.”

Miyazaki added that FromSoftware might have “more ideas” for Elden Ring in the future. Speaking of which, a future entry might be published by FromSoftware rather than Bandai Namco. It was recently discovered that FromSoftware purchased the IP from the publishing giant, which is undergoing financial troubles at the moment.

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