More details for Elden Ring: Nightreign, including a release date for the highly anticipated co-op survival action game, will come next week. That's according to Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, who notes that a "source familiar with the games plans" confirmed more information will be released on February 12th.
The announcement will coincide with the lift of an embargo that includes media previews of the game. It's also expected that a release date will be announced. Right now it's believed that the game is currently slated to launch at the end of May.
There's currently an Elden Ring: Nightreign Network Test scheduled to run from February 14th through February 17th. We haven't received any specific details regarding this test, though it's possible that next week's announcement could shed more light on it. With footage likely to come from the Network Test, it's possible that Bandai Namco was hoping to get ahead of it with its own media previews and official announcements.
Elden Ring: Nightreign was unveiled at The Game Awards in December. It's a cooperative survival action game set in a universe parallel to the events in Elden Ring. Players can go solo or group up in squads of three and attempt to survive a three day-and-night cycle. There are eight unique characters to choose from, each with their own unique abilities and powerful Ultimates. The official description teases:
Teaming up in squads of three – or daring to go solo – they must outlast a three day-and-night cycle, making split decisions about combat and exploration across a changing map to become strong enough to take down terrifying bosses at the end of each day.
The Elden Ring: Nightreign Network Test is designed to test various technical verifications of online systems while participating testers can play a portion of the game prior to its full launch. There will be five sessions throughout the weekend of February 14-16th.
Released in 2022, Elden Ring was a massive hit with over 28 million copies sold by September 2024. In addition to being one of the best-selling games of all time, it was also a commercial darling, receiving universal acclaim while winning multiple Game of the Year awards. Elden Ring is widely considered to be one of the greatest games of all time.
It's unlikely that Elden Ring: Nightreign will match the original game's success, but it will deliver something that is missing from it: proper multiplayer. Although Elden Ring does feature an online multiplayer mode that allows players to team up to fight bosses or engage in player versus player, it's done through instances. It's not a full-fledged multiplayer experience.