FromSoftware’s Miyazaki assures fans the studio will still make single-player games
In a multi-part interview with Nintendo about newly-announced Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods, director Hidetaka Miyazaki tried to dispel worries that developer FromSoftware is shifting focus away from single-player games. The studio known for single-player dark fantasy epics like Elden Ring and the Dark Souls series is now working on two multiplayer games.
As a side note, please allow me to address one thing. As previously mentioned, this is an online multiplayer title at its core, but this doesn’t mean that we as a company have decided to shift to a more multiplayer-focused direction with titles going forward.
The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Elden Ring was also announced, and we still intend to actively develop single player focused games such as this that embrace our more traditional style.
The three–part interview also goes into much further detail on The Duskbloods than we saw in the Nintendo Switch 2 direct teaser. The new game certainly looks Bloodborne-adjacent, but its multiplayer format is a significant departure. It also differs quite a bit from the other upcoming FromSoft multiplayer game, Elden Ring Nightreign — which is directed by Junya Ishizaki and due out in late-May. Where Nightreign is a fully co-operative players vs enemies (PvE) battle royale experience, Duskbloods supports up to eight players in a PvPvE format.
Players will be able to choose from over a dozen characters, called “Bloodsworn.” They’re vampiric protagonists with superhuman abilities like super-jumps and double-jumps thanks to their consumption of special blood. Miyazaki noted, “As a general concept, they’re similar to vampires, but they are not portrayed as the horrifying monsters you might associate with traditional vampirism.” It sounds similar to the class-based system of Elden Ring Nightreign, but Miyazaki mentions the characters “can be customized to a certain extent.” (Fashion Souls fans, rejoice.)
Bloodsworn will compete for “first blood” across various maps with gothic and Victorian settings and vibes. Rounds will have varying objectives, with the de facto last player standing format sometimes tasking players to instead work together to take down a notable boss. But the emphasis isn’t solely on challenging combat, as players can earn “victory points” based from non-combat objectives as well. That may help those for whom PvP isn’t exactly their style — as Miyazaki confesses, “That was the intention. I personally am not much of a PvP person, and I wanted to make something that’s satisfying even for players like me.”
What may also appeal to the single-player crowd typical of FromSoftware’s fanbase is The Duskbloods will have its own dashes of deep-seeded lore that in some ways may connect to other Souls titles. For example, the winged rat at the end of the trailer is actually an “elderly gentleman” who “shares a similar role with the fire keepers from the Dark Souls series” and will be an NPC players can seek advice from in the hub world.
The Duskbloods may have swerved some of us by looking the part of Bloodborne but turning out to be Switch 2-exclusive multiplayer battler, but personally I’m all for FromSoftware experimenting with different ideas. We’ll get a sampling of the studio’s multiplayer ambitions next month, when Elden Ring Nightreign launches May 30th, while Miyazaki has much more time to cook with The Duskbloods until it comes out in 2026.