While we all know next to nothing concerning the upcoming Elden Ring Runes DLC, Shadow from the Erdtree, that hasn’t stopped it from being one of the most anticipated gaming releases in recent memory. Since developer FromSoftware hasn’t offered many details about Shadow from the Erdtree, a lot of what we all know about the DLC originates from data miners, and also the latest leak has major implications for which to expect from the brand new content. Elden Ring was apparently designed to receive two DLC expansions prior to the add-ons being merged into one, that is exactly what happened with Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, the only real DLC released for that beloved horror game.

Data minerLance McDonald, that has a positive history of uncovering details about FromSoftware’s games, says Elden Ring’s DLC plan was originally much different. A screengrab from the Discord conversation with McDonald (as shared on Reddit) provides a basic consider the original DLC plan.

“Elden Ring was designed to launch having a season pass for 2 DLCs,” McDonald said. “It was all 100 % planned.” It’s unclear what lengths in advance it was in the works, however, it evidently never came into existence.

Some of FromSoftware’s previous games, namely Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3, had season passes with multiple stages of DLC. However, Bloodborne instead featured the only DLC that launched eight months following the game’s initial release. This wasn’t always the program. FromSoftware was working on two Bloodborne DLCs before merging them into an amount that become The Old Hunters.

“We were originally thinking about doing two teams of DLC,” Bloodborne producer Masaaki Yamagiwa told Eurogamer in 2015. “It was decided by using one set, we'd have the ability to do more by using it, and also have more volume for players to experience with. As of this time, we now have no plans for just about any more DLC.” That final plan stuck, as Bloodborne never got any more additional content.

It seems FromSoftware might be doing exactly the same thing with Elden Ring. Of course, these details haven’t been confirmed by any official sources, but because of the leaker’s history, there's likely truth to McDonald’s claims.

As McDonald explained, Elden Ring was “missing a lot of content,” that was discovered included in an initial data mine around the game’s launch. McDonald found proof of lots of content that wasn’t within the game, including various NPCs, questlines, and an amount eventually become the Colosseum. It’s possible there are more files within the game which are tied to upcoming DLCs.

In mention of the Elden Ring’s initial DLC plan, McDonald said, “No idea if this was canceled exactly, it simply never happened, and so the colosseums just randomly turned up for free.”

If true, it’s unclear why exactly FromSoftware and publisher Bandai Namco decided to release only one large DLC rather than two more minor add-ons for Elden Ring. There might be data to claim that releasing a single expansion is much more lucrative than publishing multiple DLCs. Perhaps FromSoftware was seeing diminishing returns by releasing multiple smaller DLCs, possibly generating fewer profits than expected.

FromSoftware knows what it’s doing. Bloodborne: The Old Hunters was critically acclaimed, and because of the success of buy elden ring runes, that momentum will probably continue with its Shadow from the Erdtree DLC, especially considering the length of time FromSoftware has allocated to it. Since this will seemingly function as the game’s only major expansion, the developer can pour a lot of its ideas into the upcoming DLC, hopefully resulting in something special.

It’s unclear once the upcoming DLC will launch, however, it’s possible it'll launch sometime in 2023 or 2024.