As Elden Ring’s much-anticipated final expansion is released, its designer gives a glimpse into how he crafts his harsh, beautiful, rewarding gameworlds

Much has changed for Hidetaka Miyazaki in the past 10 years. In May 2014, he was made president of FromSoftware – the Japanese game developer known for its breakout dark fantasy hits Demon’s Souls (2009), Dark Souls (2011) and Bloodborne (2015), all games he himself directed. Back then, FromSoftware’s games were critical darlings with devoted followings, but they were not enormous bestsellers, shifting a few million copies each. But in 2022, the company released the splendid, imperious Elden Ring, a collaboration with fantasy writer George RR Martin that is not only Miyazaki’s masterpiece but also by far his most popular work: to date it has sold 25m copies. FromSoftware is no longer a niche maker of cult hits. It is now the home of a genuine blockbuster.

Has this changed Miyazaki’s outlook? Perhaps unsurprisingly, given how unforgiving and cold his games’ worlds are, he is not the most optimistic person you’ll ever meet. “Elden Ring was in a league of its own in terms of the success and critical acclaim that it has seen, but what we try to do as a company is never assume that will happen again with our future games,” he tells me in an interview in Los Angeles. “No decision is based on any assumption that, hey, we did it once, it’s going to happen again. Allowing for this rather conservative forecast gives us room to fail – and that in turn results in better games and better decisions. In a roundabout way, I think that assumption of not making another hit, that conservative outlook, is fuelling and aiding our game design.”