It's weird to say that FromSoftware, a studio previously known for its singleplayer gauntlets (and very good mech series), has made some of the decade's most solid middleweight multiplayer games. But given Elden Ring: Nightreign's success, and the fact that The Duskbloods is shaping up to be pretty solid—boo, Switch 2 exclusive, boo—it's a true statement.

You might be wondering, then, if the undisputed king of gritty singleplayer RPGs where you dodge roll sometimes has gone all live service on us. Not so, says president Hidetaka Miyazaki, the combo of Nightreign and Duskbloods is literally just a coincidence.

Speaking to IGN, Miyazaki says: "It's not necessarily some big reveal saying this is the direction we plan to go in moving forward. We still have a heavy focus on single-player content as well. This is just something that happened to work out the way it did. It's funny, because there was never really any big plan that these two games would both release next to each other."

That's not to say FromSoftware hasn't been enjoying itself, though—Miyazaki seems enthused by the opportunity to break from the formula every once in a while: "Personally, it's very fun to make a multiplayer game like this. It's not something we've done a lot and we're looking forward to seeing players' reactions and getting feedback."

But that enthusiasm doesn't override his love for what FromSoftware is provably good at: Making you throw your controller because goddamn Promised Consort Radahn's lazers keep filling up the goddamn screen and how am I supposed to dodge that, this is bullcrap. Ahem.

"If anything, it's like the more you work on something multiplayer for a long time it scratches that itch only to want to make something single-player again," Miyazaki concludes—which is great news for me, as I'm personally excited to get stuck into whatever the next Elden Ring is. Sekiro 2, maybe? A parry-loving cretin can only hope.

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.