Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Physical Art Book Shipments Delayed

Bandai Namco has sent an email to purchasers of the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Collector’s Edition alerting them that the included art book will be shipped separately due to production issues, with the company expecting the delay to only set back the art books a couple of weeks. The email thanks those waiting on their Collector’s Editions for their “patience and understanding,” amongst providing a digital way to experience the art book in the meantime.

“Due to production issues your physical artbook will be delivered separately. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience,” the email reads. “Your artbook will be delivered separately to the same address provided for your Collector’s Edition order at no additional cost to you. We anticipate that the artbooks will be available to ship starting July 15, 2024. In the meantime, we have added a digital version of the artbook to your digital Original Soundtrack package.”

As physical media is printed with less frequency it seems physical deluxe and collector’s editions of video games are delayed more frequently – Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 has faced multiple delays on its Deluxe Editions recently, as one example. It’s nice that Bandai Namco are filling the gap a bit by providing a digital version for Elden Ring fans to enjoy in the meantime, but there will undoubtedly be additional questions from purchasers which will hopefully be answered in the coming days in a more public statement.

Elden Ring: The Shadow of the Erdtree‘s release is quickly approaching, with June 21st just over two weeks away now. The sole planned DLC for Elden Ring, developers FromSoftware have shared plenty leading up to the release including the official story trailer on May 21st which was shortly followed with a closer look at one of the new NPCs featured in the video. While the culmination of trailers and information provided on Shadow of the Erdtree thus far has made the DLC highly anticipated, there are also worries being shared by players regarding the fate of the (of course) beautifully designed new characters featured in the Land of Shadow.

Elden Ring creator Hidetaka Miyazaki has previously suggested that the area explored in Shadow of the Erdtree is roughly the size of Limgrave in the base game, which encompasses the area from Stormveil Castle to the southernmost regions of the whole map, so the fact this is the only planned DLC isn’t exactly disappointing given the amount of content it will add.