CD Projekt Red Sent Geralt to Congratulate FromSoftware on the Success of Shadow of the Erdtree. Making Elden Ring Easier „Would Break the Game,” Miyazaki Claims
FromSoftware is receiving congratulations from the CD Projekt Red studio (and Pavel Sasko) for the historic success of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, and its „father,” Hidetaka Miyazaki, believes that the key to its achievement was, among other things, high difficulty level.
The gaming community is abuzz with the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion for Elden Ring, which premiered last night and has already attracted many players (according to our morning report, Steam's peak activity has risen from around 590,000 to approximately 740,000 players playing at the same time). No wonder - Shadow of the Erdtree has become the highest-rated expansion in history, dethroning the long-time leader of this ranking, the Blood and Wine expansion for The Witcher 3.
The king is dead, long live the king. CD Projekt's nice gesture
Even though FromSoftware has taken the title of creators of the best expansion in history from CD Projekt Red, developers from Poland decided on a nice gesture and publicly congratulated their Japanese colleagues via the official The Witcher profile on X. They celebrated their success with beautiful graphics (below), combining two valued universes, The Witcher and Elden Ring.
Pawel Sasko, one of the leading faces of CD Projekt RED also added a few words from himself on social media. The popular developer, although he hasn't yet completed the basic version of "Elden," promised to purchase the DLC to appreciate the immense craftsmanship of FromSoftware in developing outstanding games.
"Turning down difficulty would strip the game of joy"
Since we're already discussing the expansion of Elden Ring, we can't forget to mention the recent comments from its creator, Hidetaka Miyazaki, about its success. In an interview with the British The Guardian, the famous Japanese developer touched on the game's difficulty level, explaining his philosophy in its design.
In Miyazaki's eyes, the huge success of Elden Ring came from the fact that players could derive great joy from overcoming the difficult challenges the game presented to them. Lack of satisfaction - for example, from defeating a demanding boss - according to the Japanese, would harm the game, even though the title could then reach an even wider audience.
If we really wanted the whole world to play the game, we could just crank the difficulty down more and more. But that wasn't the right approach.
Had we taken that approach, I don't think the game would have done what it did, because the sense of achievement that players gain from overcoming these hurdles is such a fundamental part of the experience. Turning down difficulty would strip the game of that joy – which, in my eyes, would break the game itself.
It must be admitted that Elden Ring - at least in the basic version - still offers players a lot of conveniences, such as summons or an open world, making this title the most accessible soulslike from FromSoftware, and not as difficult as some of their previous games.
