Elden Ring fans, we don’t mean to get your hopes up but… a Shadow of the Erdtree release date looks increasingly likely to arrive in the coming weeks. A new mystery package was recently added to the game’s DLC section on Steam, and there’s a strong possibility that it could turn out to be the long-awaited Elden Ring DLC that PS5 and Xbox players have been dreaming of.
As spotted by Elden Ring content creator ‘Ziostorm’ over on Twitter, app ID 2778580 was last week slotted into the list of downloadable content – you can check this out for yourself on SteamDB here. While this doesn’t absolutely confirm that the Erdtree will soon cast its shadow on one of the best games out there, it’s hard to imagine that it could be anything else.
Timing-wise, it simply makes sense that developer FromSoftware is looking to lay the groundwork ahead of the Elden Ring DLC launch. This is more than likely set to arrive at some point in February – at least if we’re putting stock into marketing mistakes made by merch partners.
Back in December, we reported that Thrustmaster’s upcoming Elden Ring controller had been slated for next month. Suspiciously enough, last week we also reported that figurine maker PureArts was targeting a February release for its first collectible for the best open world game. You see where we’re going with this.
Of course, these release windows could simply be targeting the second anniversary of Elden Ring’s original release on February 25, 2022. However, considering that Shadow of the Erdtree was announced on the first anniversary, the pieces look to be aligning nicely for a DLC launch around the same time.
FromSoft has remained silent on the status of Shadow of the Erdtree since its announcement. The tweet unveiling the DLC currently sits at a whopping 43 million views, which shows how eager fans are to get their mitts on the upcoming expansion. In fact, the only concrete update we’ve had actually came from parent company Kadokawa, which says in its Q2 2023 earnings report that development is “proceeding smoothly.” Scraps. We’re living on scraps.
Though there hasn’t been any sort of confirmation surrounding the DLC’s contents, we expect Shadow of the Erdtree to delve deeper narratively into the game’s most enigmatic Empyrean, Miquella. As an extension of this, we can imagine FromSoft’s cooking up some nasty new Elden Ring bosses to beat, as well as expansions of its existing systems – namely crafting, magic, and weapons.
We’ve already given our predictions for the upcoming Xbox Developer Direct and Sony’s rumored State of Play – both of which are set to take place ahead of Shadow of the Erdtree’s launch. Perhaps the biggest curveball of all would be some sort of DLC announcement at either showcase, though it looks like FromSoft wants to stick to its official channels for the most part. As such, we may have to wait and see if that SteamDB listing gets a more revealing tweak over the coming weeks unless FromSoft beats it to the punch.