Bandai Namco announces Elden Ring anniversary event, but I’d put those piping hot DLC expectations on ice, champ

Bandai Namco Nordics, the regional Scandinavian division of Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco, recently announced a party and accompanying livestream in Stockholm on February 25 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of our 2022 Game of the Year. The announcement already has fans in a lather, with numerous comments and quote tweets speculating about DLC, and a post about the party on the game’s subreddit titled “Possible DLC news?” attracting more than 4,500 upvotes and over 500 comments.

As much as I’d like it to be the case though, I don’t think this is The Big One. The event’s card describes it as a “community celebration,” and promises a live show, giveaways, contests, exclusive prizes, a pub quiz, drinks, cosplay, and some sort of Elden Ring PvP connection (the post just says “PvP,” but I think some manner of real life bloodsport doesn’t quite fit the mood here).

As we approach Elden Ring’s one-year anniversary, fans, myself included, are getting squirrely. At this point in the life cycle of most of the studio’s games, we’d receive a substantial expansion pack like The Old Hunters or Artorias of the Abyss, often containing the coolest levels, bosses, and weapons of their respective game. Elden Ring’s big though, huge, with a long development no doubt taking its toll and any follow-up having to be proportional to that massive, high-quality experience.

We’ve turned to pondering tea leaves, searching for a sign from the heavens, anything to confirm that there’s a Radahn-sized addon coming down the pike. While there have been encouraging signs like placeholder code for future locations found buried in the files or director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s brief promise that his team has “plenty more things [they] still want to do,” Stockholm and Bandai Namco Nordics just don’t strike me as the venue or host for such a reveal. That’s not a dig at Stockholm either⁠—I’d just expect it to be closer to home in Japan, at a major event like Summer Game Fest, or in the form of a dedicated live stream with no real-life community event.

This event is still something to keep an eye on if you’re an Elden Ring superfreak like me, and I have a feeling that we’ll get some inkling of the series’ future around the time of this crucial anniversary, but as in all areas of life, don’t get your hopes up. Maybe check out another cool Soulslike such as Tunic to scratch the same itch, or just play Elden Ring again⁠—I recently launched playthrough number three and I’m still finding some things I missed here and there.

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