Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Director Comments on George R. R. Martin's Involvement

gamerant.com:

FromSoftware has commented on George R. R. Martin's involvement in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, confirming that the upcoming DLC will once again feature lore that the famous author has penned for the studio. However, the Japanese developer did not actually bring back George R. R. Martin to specifically work on the upcoming Elden Ring expansion.

As one of the most acclaimed games ever created, FromSoftware's hit 2022 RPG was never lacking in selling points spanning both gameplay and worldbuilding alike. A particularly distinctive trait that helped set it apart from its rivals and previous titles by the Dark Souls developer was the fact that the Elden Ring mythos was penned by none other than George R. R. Martin.

The Shadow of the Erdtree Elden Ring expansion that was just treated to a release date will also draw from the lore that Martin had written for the project. However, FromSoftware didn't actually rehire the author of A Song of Ice and Fire to work on the expansion. Instead, the developer opted to base the DLC on some of Martin's existing lore that didn't make it to the vanilla version of the game. That's according to Elden Ring Director Hidetaka Miyazaki, who told Eurogamer that Shadow of the Erdtree will not include «a brand-new mythos» written specifically for the purposes of the expansion.

Elaborating on that point, Miyazaki explained that the DLC is merely a previously unused part of Martin's original mythology that FromSoftware «thought fit to tell as a new expansion.» His comments imply that much like George R. R. Martin's initials were all over Elden Ring, his influence is also likely to be felt across Shadow of the Erdtree, even though he was no longer actively involved in the project by the time the expansion started development circa late 2022. For reference, the studio's past comments implied Martin's work on the game concluded no later than 2019.

[George R. R. Martin] has not created something new which informed the design of the DLC. It's simply