Elden Ring has been out in the wild for several months now, but developer From Software still has more up its sleeve. In a new interview, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki says From is currently in the “final stages” of development on its next game, which may be a new Armored Core title – or something else entirely.
Speaking with the Japanese language site 4Gamers, Miyazaki says (through a rough Google translation) that at least since From Software was making Sekiro, the studio has maintained around ‘three and a half’ in-house production lines at a time. One of those was, of course, Elden Ring, and another is currently coming close to completion.
It’s long been rumoured that From Software has been quietly working on a new Armored Core game, and chatter about that heated up earlier this year when word emerged telling of a From Software survey that dealt with an upcoming Armored Core game. The survey also suggested that the sci-fi world of mech combat is one that’s been created by Miyazaki, whose ideas and concepts shaped the worlds and stories of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls.
Miyazaki stops short of officially announcing anything, however – he doesn’t name Armored Core as the project nearing completion, nor does he say what else the studio is working on. However, he does confirm that Elden Ring will continue to receive updates.
But that’s not all From Software is doing. 4Gamer points out that the studio has also posted a new raft of job openings for positions that include a game planner, a systems planner, game programmers, research and development, graphics systems producers, and more.
With plans in place to increase the size of From Software, Miyazaki also says that he does “not want or intend to use a work style that is physically or temporally unreasonable as a standard for evaluation,” when asked about recent reports of crunch at the studio. He says the “working environment [at From] should have improved significantly in recent years” and that employee salaries and bonuses are being increased.