Dark Souls 4 vs. Elden Ring 2: What FromSoftware Does Next Changes Everything
TL;DR: A decade after Dark Souls 3, FromSoftware hasn't announced what's next — and the gaming community is split. Some fans want Dark Souls 4. Others think the series ended perfectly and shouldn't be touched. The real debate reveals what players actually want from the studio that redefined difficulty-based action RPGs.
FromSoftware hasn't formally announced Dark Souls 4. That's the starting point for everything below.
What we do know: Dark Souls 3 released on March 24, 2016, and it landed. Critics averaged 90/100 on OpenCritic with a 94% recommendation rate. The trilogy collectively sold over 40 million copies across all platforms, according to Bandai Namco. That's not just a franchise. That's a permanent fixture in gaming's DNA.
Since then, the studio has been nowhere near quiet. Elden Ring dropped in February 2022 and became arguably FromSoftware's biggest critical and commercial achievement — selling over 25 million copies in its first year alone, a figure that dwarfs the entire Dark Souls trilogy's lifetime sales up to that point. The Duskbloods, a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive launching in 2025, is the only confirmed upcoming release. Beyond that, several unannounced projects are reportedly in development, but nobody outside Miyazaki's circle knows what they actually are.
The Reddit Thread That Split the Fanbase
The debate crystallized recently when a Reddit user made the case: FromSoftware should prioritize Dark Souls 4 over an Elden Ring sequel.
The responses weren't what you'd expect. One commenter wrote: "Dark Souls 3 ended on an almost perfect note. I'd rather leave the story where it ended." Clean. Reasonable. But another user articulated something sharper, something that gets at the real tension between two different eras of FromSoftware design:
"I think they excelled in small map design. I loved Elden Ring, but I felt more compelled to every aspect of the story when it was more contained rather than scattered like ashes to the nine winds."
That's not criticism. It's a preference for density over breadth — and it reveals what the actual argument is about. A third commenter nailed it: "I don't necessarily want Dark Souls 4, but definitely want a new game that's more Dark Souls than it is Elden Ring, if that makes sense."
It does. What they're describing isn't a sequel. It's a design philosophy.
What Made Dark Souls 3's World Design Actually Unrepeatable
Here's what strikes me about this debate: the spatial storytelling that defined Dark Souls 3 is almost impossible to discuss without sounding pretentious, but it's also the reason people keep arguing about whether a sequel should exist at all.
FromSoftware under Hidetaka Miyazaki built worlds that communicated lore through architecture, item placement, and enemy positioning rather than cutscenes. The Untended Graves sequence — where you discover a dark-mirror version of the game's opening area, the same Firelink Shrine but drained of light, with Champion Gundyr waiting where Iudex once stood — is environmental storytelling that most studios can't execute even when they're explicitly trying. Miyazaki's team did it almost casually.
Whether that precision is achievable at Elden Ring's open-world scale is exactly what the community argument is really about. Dark Souls 3's tight corridor-and-bonfire structure allowed for this kind of deliberate design. Open worlds demand something different. Most coverage frames this debate as "sequel vs. sequel," but the more honest question is whether FromSoftware can maintain that handcrafted density at scale, or whether Elden Ring's commercial dominance has made the tight, interconnected Souls map a financial impossibility for a studio now expected to deliver blockbuster numbers.
The Franchise Timeline: From Demon's Souls to Now
Dark Souls began as a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls (2009), a cult PS3 exclusive that established the template: deliberate combat, punishing consequences, a world that rewarded patience. Dark Souls (2011) expanded that onto PC and Xbox for the first time, building a community that didn't exist before the genre did.
Dark Souls 2 (2014) remains divisive. Different director (Tomohiro Shibuya took over, then Yui Tanimura stepped in), looser world cohesion, and a noticeably different visual tone made it the black sheep. Honestly, it has the best DLC of the three, and that's defensible even if it's not popular.
Dark Souls 3 brought Miyazaki back to the director's chair and felt like both a victory lap and a farewell. The story concludes with the Ashen One either rekindling the First Flame or walking away from it entirely. Both endings work. Both feel final.
Then came the pivot. Bloodborne (PS4 exclusive, 2015) was Gothic horror. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019) eliminated shields entirely and made parrying the core mechanic. Elden Ring (2022) went open-world with George R. R. Martin. Each one pulled the formula in a different direction.
Here's the lineage for anyone new to this:
- Demon's Souls (2009) — origin story
- Dark Souls (2011) — mainstream breakthrough
- Dark Souls 2 (2014) — the controversial middle chapter
- Bloodborne (2015) — Gothic horror pivot
- Dark Souls 3 (2016) — trilogy's conclusion
- Sekiro (2019) — parry-focused outlier
- Elden Ring (2022) — open-world evolution
Where to Actually Play Dark Souls Right Now
If you want to revisit the series while this debate unfolds, here's what's available and where:
- Dark Souls Remastered — PC (Steam), PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin — PC, PS4, Xbox One
- Dark Souls 3 — PC (Steam), PS4, Xbox One (backward compatible on PS5/Xbox Series X)
- Elden Ring — PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
For Indian gamers specifically, all three are available through Steam at localized pricing, making them genuinely accessible entry points. Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker monitors regional availability across platforms if you're hunting for the best prices or specific console versions.
The Argument Nobody's Actually Making (But Should Be)
Here's the thing: the entire "Dark Souls 4 vs. Elden Ring 2" framing might be the wrong question entirely. One commenter in that Reddit thread got closest to the real issue: "Give us new stuff and not more iterations of a 17-year-old formula."
FromSoftware has never made the same game twice in any meaningful sense. Bloodborne and Sekiro were genuine departures, not sequels. The Duskbloods — a multiplayer-focused title for Switch 2 — suggests the studio is still willing to experiment wildly.
What gets lost in aggregator takes is that this fan debate isn't really about which sequel gets made. It's about trust. Players who loved Dark Souls 3's purposeful, contained world design are genuinely worried that Elden Ring has permanently changed how FromSoftware thinks about scope. That's a legitimate concern, and the part I'm most curious about is whether The Duskbloods' reception will quietly answer it before any mainline announcement ever happens.
The thing nobody mentions is this: FromSoftware's creative ceiling isn't Dark Souls 4 or Elden Ring 2. It's whatever comes after both of them.
India's FromSoftware Community and What Comes Next
India's gaming market has grown dramatically since Elden Ring's announcement, and FromSoftware titles have found a real audience here — particularly on PC via Steam and PS4/PS5. The Dark Souls series isn't region-locked, and all major entries are available through standard storefronts at reasonable pricing.
For Indian audiences tracking this debate, YouTube remains dominant. Creators like VaatiVidya (lore deep-dives) and Iron Pineapple (challenge runs) have built substantial viewership here. There's no dedicated Dark Souls animated series on Netflix India, Prime Video India, JioCinema, or SonyLIV yet — but the success of Arcane and Castlevania means an adaptation is plausible if FromSoftware ever greenlit one.
Movie OTT tracks streaming availability across Indian platforms, and the short answer for Indian fans right now is straightforward: the games themselves are your best access point. If an adaptation were greenlit, Netflix India or Prime Video India would be the most likely homes for it.
What's Actually Confirmed (And When We Might Hear More)
The Duskbloods releases alongside Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025, and its reception will signal whether FromSoftware is comfortable with multiplayer-forward design going forward. Beyond that, the studio has confirmed multiple unannounced projects, and industry watchers have speculated that a major announcement could come before the end of 2026.
For streaming availability of any future adaptation or gaming content tied to the franchise, Movie OTT's tracking system will have current listings across Netflix, Prime Video, and regional platforms the moment anything is officially confirmed.
Whether it's Dark Souls 4, Elden Ring 2, or something nobody's predicted yet — FromSoftware's next announcement will break the internet. The community is primed. The debate is already running hot. The wait? That's the only part nobody actually wanted.
