Hidetaka Miyazaki reveals The Duskbloods was initially planned for Nintendo Switch 1: "It was being worked on by a small team"

The Duskbloods may be arriving soon on Nintendo Switch 2, but what’s surprising is where it actually began — quietly, as a passion project for the original Nintendo Switch. In a candid reveal on the Creator’s Voice blog, FromSoftware’s Hidetaka Miyazaki shared how this haunting PvPvE multiplayer game began with just a few rough ideas and a very small dev team. Miyazaki said:

“At first it was being worked on by a small team as a title for Nintendo Switch. However, just as the game started to take shape, we were approached by Nintendo with talk of Switch 2, which led us to revamp our development path with this new hardware in mind.”

That shift changed everything. Once Switch 2 was in the picture, the team saw an opportunity to expand the original vision — especially its online infrastructure and finally go all in on what Miyazaki called a truer version of The Duskbloods.

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The Duskbloods was originally built for Nintendo Switch — now it’s something way bigger

Miyazaki explains The Duskbloods as a PvPvE title, where players battle each other as well as the world in frantic online multiplayer. The atmosphere is quite different from something like Dark Souls or Sekiro, though still full of brutal enemies and surprise encounters.

You’ll play as one of the Bloodsworn — supernatural warriors who have gained their abilities through a mysterious blood source. While they draw some inspiration from vampires, Miyazaki clarified that they’re not meant to be monsters.

These warriors are pulled into an apocalyptic event known as the Twilight of Humanity, battling across various timelines for something called First Blood — a kind of ultimate power that exists at the end of the human world.

Interestingly, the game doesn’t lock itself to one era. You’ll jump between settings like war-torn Victorian cities and collapsing industrial zones. One map even features a train tearing through the chaos, as seen in the trailer.

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What does The Duskbloods even mean?

If you’ve been wondering about the title — Miyazaki cleared that up too. The name The Duskbloods refers specifically to the Bloodsworn. It’s a label for those cursed with power and summoned across time to fight for dominance as humanity crumbles.

There’s no single setting, no locked-down timeline. The world is broken, and the Bloodsworn are scattered across its dying moments. Blood, as a concept, ties it all together. Miyazaki stated:

“Blood symbolizes one of the game’s key themes — the history it holds, the power it passes on, the fates it weaves, and the marker of those who have surpassed the limitations of their own humanity."

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Single player isn’t dead — this is just a detour

While The Duskbloods is a multiplayer first experience through and through, Miyazaki made sure to clarify that FromSoftware isn’t ditching its roots. He took a moment to clarify that solo-focused titles like Elden Ring will continue to be a priority, especially with the Nintendo Switch 2 version of that game also confirmed.

This just happens to be the studio experimenting with a different idea, born from a random pitch and nurtured into something bigger.

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