Elden Ring: Nightreign Made Without George R.R. Martin

Summary

• Elden Ring: Nightreign was revealed at The Game Awards 2024, and George R.R. Martin was later confirmed to have no influence on the spin-off.
• Martin had no direct involvement in Shadow of the Erdtree’s development either, and Nightreign will have a “completely separate branch of the Elden Ring story.”
• Director Hidetaka Miyazaki has praised Martin’s contribution to Elden Ring’s world-building, and expressed openness to future collaborations.

One of the biggest surprises revealed at The Game Awards 2024 was the Elden Ring: Nightreign announcement, but Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin was later confirmed to be absent from the project’s development. Developer FromSoftware previously confirmed Elden Ring 2 was off the table, but spin-off games set in the same universe were alluded to. The team managed to keep Elden Ring: Nightreign a secret for the most part, even though there was talk of a potential multiplayer in the fandom.

Elden Ring was first released in 2022, welcoming players into the Lands Between to play as the Tarnished and navigate the open world in a bid to become the new Elden Lord. One staple of this Soulslike and many others is the challenging boss battles on offer, present tenfold in the 2024 Shadow of the Erdtree expansion too, and the upcoming multiplayer will follow suit. Elden Ring: Nightreign was announced at The Game Awards 2024 and was confirmed to be released in 2025. The game will be a spin-off of the base game, which rings true with FromSoftware’s previous statement.

In an interview with IGN released after Elden Ring: Nightreign’s announcement, game director Junya Ishizaki discussed several details about the multiplayer. After confirming Nightreign’s story would be completely standalone but co-exist alongside the base game’s narrative, Ishizaki also revealed George R.R. Martin had no influence on the spin-off’s story or world. Despite the DLC being based on the writer’s lore from the first game, Martin had no involvement in Shadow of the Erdtree’s development either. Ishizaki explained FromSoftware wanted to create a “completely separate branch of the Elden Ring story,” and the team didn’t want to encroach on fans’ emotional attachment to the main narrative.

George R.R. Martin Confirmed to Have No Influence on Elden Ring: Nightreign

Even though fantasy fans are eyeing him for the completion of Game of Thrones’ The Winds of Winter book, Martin provided a majority of Elden Ring’s world-building, particularly the events that occurred before the main narrative of the base game. Additionally, George R.R. Martin previously commented on the Elden Ring live-action adaptation, which is a potential project the writer may return to oversee, similar to him shepherding the House of the Dragon series.

Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki also commented on future collaborations similar to the union with Martin, either reuniting with the writer on another Elden Ring project or something separate, or joining forces with other professionals. Miyazaki has nothing but praise for Martin, saying his world-building abilities added huge value to the Soulslike and creatively stimulated the FromSoftware team. Therefore, the writer would be welcomed back to future games with open arms.