An Elden Ring mobile game sounds like a bad joke, so you may be in disbelief when you hear about it. After all, FromSoftware stunned the gaming world with its scale and quality when it was released in 2022. Its defiance of modern AAA trappings made it a hit, but that success has unfortunately made it a target for exploitation.
Is there an Elden Ring mobile game?
An Elden Ring mobile game is in development, according to Reuters. Tencent Holdings (which owns a 16 percent stake in FromSoftware) allegedly obtained the license to the game in 2022, and several dozen developers have been working on it since then.
However, progress has apparently been slow-going. Tencent has found difficulty in adapting Elden Ring’s appeal into a free-to-play experience with microtransactions. The game’s core experience is fundamentally at odds with the model Tencent has planned. A large part of Elden Ring’s popularity is the freedom to explore and build your character. These two things would almost certainly be gated in a free-to-play title.
Because of these difficulties, Tencent may decide to cancel its Elden Ring mobile game. The company recently stopped work on a title based on the Nier franchise due to monetization concerns. Additionally, developing mobile titles based on licensed IPs is becoming less profitable. Tencent would have to pay out royalties to FromSoftware as part of the deal, making it much harder to break even.
While Tencent is still a behemoth with almost a quarter of a trillion USD in assets with investments throughout the industry, gaming has started shrinking back from its COVID highs. The company has found that some of its recent gaming products have fallen short of projections and continues to rely on past hits like PUBG Mobile. As such, it’s been put in a challenging situation where the future of its gaming business is unclear.
