FromSoftware has spent decades teaching players that patience is a virtue and that 'you died' is a lifestyle. Then, in 2026, the studio finds itself in a weird spot: it has two multiplayer-flavored projects making noise. Elden Ring: Nightreign was a success, and The Duskbloods is shaping up to be pretty solid—except it is a Switch 2 exclusive, which is a sentence that makes PC players clutch their keyboards like a security blanket. Boo, indeed.
So, has the undisputed king of gritty single-player RPGs—where you dodge roll sometimes, panic roll often, and blame the camera always—gone all live service? Not so, says president Hidetaka Miyazaki. The combo of Nightreign and Duskbloods is literally just a coincidence. The man told IGN that it is not necessarily some big reveal saying this is the direction the studio plans to go in moving forward. FromSoftware still has a heavy focus on single-player content. It is just something that happened to work out the way it did. It is funny, he added, because there was never really any big plan that these two games would both release next to each other.
The internet's collective eyebrow rose anyway. It is understandable. FromSoftware's reputation was built on lonely, punishing journeys: Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring. The idea that the studio might pivot to seasonal content, battle passes, and a shopkeeper who says 'Tarnished, have you considered the premium currency?' is enough to make a Hollow curl up in a ball. But Miyazaki's comments suggest the multiplayer detour is more of a side quest than a main path. The studio is not abandoning its roots. It is just stretching different muscles.
That does not mean FromSoftware has not been enjoying itself. Miyazaki seems enthused by the chance to break from the formula every once in a while. Personally, it is very fun to make a multiplayer game like this, he said. It is not something the studio has done a lot, and the team is looking forward to seeing players' reactions and getting feedback. That is a healthy attitude. Even a developer known for making players throw their controllers because goddamn Promised Consort Radahn's lasers keep filling up the goddamn screen—and how is anyone supposed to dodge that, this is bullcrap—deserves to have a little fun. Ahem.
But that enthusiasm does not override Miyazaki's love for what FromSoftware is provably good at. The single-player flame still burns. If anything, he concluded, the more you work on something multiplayer for a long time, it scratches that itch only to want to make something single-player again. That is great news for anyone who has spent a decade-plus as a FromSoftware sicko, memorizing boss patterns, arguing about poise, and whispering 'just one more try' at 3 a.m. like a haunted Victorian child.
What comes next? The obvious guess is whatever the next Elden Ring is. A sequel? A spin-off? Another trip to the Lands Between with new ways to suffer? Sekiro 2, maybe? A parry-loving cretin can only hope. The reference article even jokes about it, and honestly, the world is ready for more clashing steel and posture damage. In 2026, the lineup of upcoming games is already crowded, but FromSoftware always finds a way to make room in players' nightmares.
Here is a quick look at the broader 2026 gaming landscape, just to keep the panic organized:
| Category | What players are watching |
|---|---|
| 2026 games | All the upcoming games, from indie darlings to blockbuster sequels |
| Best PC games | The all-time favorites that still eat hundreds of hours |
| Free PC games | The freebie fest that keeps wallets alive |
| Best FPS games | The finest gunplay, twitch reflexes, and questionable physics |
| Best RPGs | Grand adventures, deep builds, and dialogue trees |
| Best co-op games | Better together, especially when someone else pulls aggro |
For FromSoftware, though, the story is simpler. Nightreign and Duskbloods are not a grand live-service master plan. They are two projects that happened to collide in the release schedule. Miyazaki and his team are still the same studio that loves a lonely boss arena, a cryptic item description, and a poison swamp that somehow has a poison swamp inside it. The multiplayer experiments are fun, but they are not a betrayal. They are a palate cleanser.
And if the pendulum swings back to single-player soon? Good. The world could always use another game where a giant knight with a tragic backstory beats a player into paste while a sad violin plays. That is the FromSoftware promise. That is the FromSoftware curse. And in 2026, it sounds like that curse is not going anywhere.