Elden Ring DLC Release Date Seems Further Off Than Assumed

Earlier this year, Elden Ring developer FromSoftware announced that it was working on a new DLC for the hit action role-playing game. Titled Shadow of the Erdtree, the DLC was assumed to be set for a 2023 launch. After all, with it being announced so early in the year, it certainly seemed like FromSoftware would have plenty of time to get it out before the end of the year. Now, it seems like that might not actually be the case and fans will have to wait much longer than expected to jump into new Elden Ring content.

As spotted by Gamingbolt, FromSoftware’s parent company Kadokawa recently posted its financial reports for the past fiscal year. In that report, the company made sure to note that Elden Ring was a massive success sales-wise, which shouldn’t be surprising given how that game effectively took over the gaming world for months when it launched. However, the important bit for the DLC is found when looking at Kadokawa’s forecast for the current fiscal year which ends on March 31, 2024. There, you can see that Shadow of the Erdtree isn’t listed. Instead, it’s just a selection of the company’s mobile offerings, Armored Core 6, and several new games from Spike Chunsoft.

Elden Ring‘s DLC is listed under “medium to long-term direction,” which could point to several things. The most likely seems to be that they just aren’t ready to share the date just yet and are being extra careful since they know fans are looking forward to it. Kadokawa notes that it is “pursuing the maximization of profit by prolonging the life of the IP,” so it’s clear they are committed to sticking with Elden Ring. Again, that’s not surprising news because of the juggernaut that game has become, but it’s worth noting.

The other possibility is that fans won’t have Shadow of the Erdtree in their hands until sometime after April 1, 2024. This would put its release in the next fiscal year, meaning Armored Core 6 would be the only FromSoftware game on the books for this year. Depending on the size of the DLC, that’s a distinct possibility. That said, with Shadow of the Erdtree being announced so early in 2023, it seems unlikely that we’ll be waiting that long to play Elden Ring‘s DLC.