Growing uncertainty over Elden Ring's feature in E3 2021

FromSoftware’s Elden Ring has been one of the most anticipated games of 2021. However, its feature in E3 remains uncertain.

Since its first announcement, the game has piqued the curiosity of fans who enjoy dark fantasy-action RPGs. Elden Ring is a game for players heavily invested in world-building, story-rich environments, and game progression methods of the Souls-like genre.

But as June inches closer, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Entertainment's silence regarding Elden Ring's feature at E3 2021 has left fans clueless. Bandai Namco Entertainment recently announced its involvement in an upcoming global digital event. Now, fans worldwide are looking for any potential news regarding Elden Ring.

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Why Elden RIng could be shown in E3 2021

Elden Ring has been due for quite a while now (Image via FromSoftware)

Elden Ring went into development in 2017, right after the release of The Ringed City DLC of Dark Souls III. The game is being developed by FromSoftware, under the supervision of Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin.

Elden Ring received its first official announcement in E3 2019 via a trailer. Since then, no news has surfaced regarding the game's release. With such a massive fan-following, everyone has been parsing through announcements, leaks, and other publicly known details.

Given the many years of work on the project, the developers have offered little information about the gameplay besides that it will be an open-world game with a possible horse riding experience.

As per recent footage, several weapons, characters, and enemies have been showcased, but no relevant context was provided.

Going by FromSoftware’s previous trends, four years is a reasonable time frame within which they usually reveal more about a game under development. Even though it was made clear that Elden Ring will be of a larger scale than any other Souls game, a possible feature in E3 2021 should have been confirmed considering the development time.

However, a recent announcement from FromSoftware’s parent company made it clear that Elden Ring might not be released any time before March 2022. Furthermore, a recent news article also clarifies that Elden Ring will most probably not be featured in E3 2021.

However, fans of the action RPG genre are still holding onto hopes of Elden Ring being featured in E3 this year.

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Possible reasons behind the secrecy

Elden Ring (Image via FromSoftware)

An extended period of silence from developers and publishers, in most cases, hints at the obvious fact that there is little to show. Given the grand scale of Elden Ring, FromSoftware’s biggest project so far, it might be a while before a gameplay trailer or announcement surfaces. The development could also have slowed down due to COVID-19 disruptions.

With all that said, it is still uncertain whether Elden Ring will be featured in E3 2021. Even though the developer and the publisher have not offered anything concrete regarding the game, there is still time before the event. So an announcement cannot be completely ruled out.