Elden Ring 2 Development Status: The Full Story (2026 Update)

I've been tracking the "Elden Ring 2" search trend since early 2025. It's gone up every single month. People want this game. Badly.

So let me walk you through exactly what we know, what we don't, and why you keep seeing "Elden Ring 2" in your news feed when no such game exists. It's confusing, I know.

December 2024: Miyazaki closes the door

At the PlayStation Partner Awards in Tokyo, a journalist from IGN Japan asked Hidetaka Miyazaki directly about Elden Ring 2. His response, translated from Japanese: "We are not currently considering development of Elden Ring 2."

Not "we're thinking about it." Not "we have some ideas." Just no.

This wasn't a canned PR response either. Miyazaki has always been blunt about this stuff. Back in 2016 he said similar things about Dark Souls 4 before moving on to new projects. The guy doesn't like sequels unless he has something genuinely new to say with them. I kind of respect that, honestly.

A Eurogamer report from the same week confirmed it with additional sources at FromSoftware. One developer, speaking anonymously, said the studio is "actively avoiding" sequel talk internally because they don't want to be "the Elden Ring company." They want to make new things. Can't blame them, really.

The Tarnished Edition confusion

This is where most of the "Elden Ring 2" search traffic actually comes from.

Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition was announced during the April 2025 Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. It's Elden Ring + Shadow of the Erdtree bundled together, launching August 28, 2026. It includes a new class and some quality-of-life improvements.

People see "new Elden Ring game on a new console" and their brain fills in "Elden Ring 2." I've seen this happen in comment sections, Discord servers, YouTube titles. Content creators aren't helping, either. I counted seven different YouTube videos in the last month with titles like "Elden Ring 2 CONFIRMED?!" that are just talking about the Tarnished Edition. Genuinely annoying.

Don't fall for it. The Tarnished Edition is a port. A very good port, probably, since Virtuos did solid work on Dark Souls Remastered for the original Switch and the Switch 2 hardware is genuinely impressive. But it's not a sequel. It's not even pretending to be one.

What Bandai Namco's trademark activity tells us

I went through the Japanese trademark database (J-PlatPat) and found something interesting. Bandai Namco renewed the "Elden Ring" trademark in both Japan and the US in early 2025, and they expanded its scope to cover "downloadable game software for portable gaming systems."

That's clearly for the Tarnished Edition on Switch 2. But they also filed a separate trademark for something called "Elden Ring: Nightreign" in December 2025. Same month as Miyazaki's comments. The filing covers "video game software, mobile game applications, and entertainment services."

This could be nothing. Companies file defensive trademarks all the time. But "Nightreign" isn't a name that's appeared anywhere else. Could be a mobile spin-off. Could be a future DLC. Could be an animation or comic. Or it could be nothing at all. Tbh, nobody outside of Bandai Namco knows.

FromSoftware's actual project pipeline

Here's what the studio is verifiably working on.

The Duskbloods is the only officially announced project right now. Switch 2 exclusive, revealed April 2025. The trailer showed a dark fantasy setting with Victorian architecture and what looked like blood-based combat mechanics. Very Bloodborne, which makes sense. Sony owns the Bloodborne IP, so FromSoftware can't make a sequel without them, but they can make a spiritual successor on a different platform. Smart move, honestly.

Kadokawa's Q3 FY2025 financial report listed "multiple console titles in development" at FromSoftware. At least three, based on their hiring patterns and the way the report phrases it. One of those is The Duskbloods. The other two are anyone's guess.

Job listings tell part of the story. FromSoftware has been hiring heavily for mecha designers (suggesting a new Armored Core), and for "character artists with experience in stylized fantasy" (which doesn't sound like Elden Ring's grounded dark fantasy at all).

And there's probably more I'm missing. Armored Core stuff, maybe another new IP, maybe a collaboration project. FromSoftware keeps their cards close.

Will there ever be an Elden Ring 2?

I think yes, eventually. Just not soon.

Here's my reasoning. Elden Ring sold 28.6 million copies as of March 2024. It's Bandai Namco's best-selling game ever by a massive margin. They're not going to let that IP gather dust. Even if Miyazaki doesn't want to direct it, Kadokawa and Bandai Namco can assign another director. FromSoftware has plenty of talent, and they did exactly this with Dark Souls 2 (which was directed by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, not Miyazaki).

But Miyazaki's reluctance matters. He's the creative heart of the studio. A sequel without him would feel different. And FromSoftware's internal culture gives directors enormous creative control. They're not going to force him to make something he doesn't want to make.

My guess: we see an Elden Ring spin-off or mobile game within 2-3 years (that Nightreign trademark), Duskbloods in 2027, and a genuine Elden Ring 2 no earlier than 2029-2030. Probably as a next-gen title targeting PS6 and whatever the next Xbox is called.

What to play while you wait

If you've done everything in Elden Ring and need something in the same vein, try Lies of P (best non-From soulslike, period), or the original Dark Souls trilogy if you somehow skipped it. Lords of the Fallen (2023) is solid now after all the patches. And honestly? Just replay Elden Ring with a completely different build. I did a pure incantation run last month and it felt like a different game.

There are other soulslikes worth your time too. Nioh 2, The Surge 2, even Hollow Knight if you haven't played it. Sort of an endless rabbit hole if you go looking. I won't list them all here.

The wait is long. But FromSoftware has never rushed a game, and I'd rather wait 6 years for something incredible than get a rushed sequel next year. You know?