A leaked coliseum area in Elden Ring might mean a multiplayer DLC is inbound, that could pit players against each other in arena-style combat. FromSoftware's latest game launched less than two weeks ago, however the Souls-like RPG has already be a critical and commercial success. Despite several technical issues in the game's PC port, Elden Ring reached Steam's sixth-highest player count ever, garnering a 24-hour player count peak of nearly a million gamers.
It has been said that certain of Elden Ring's best features is its multiplayer system, which enables cooperation against challenging enemies. The knowledge is associated with summoning, by which players make use of a Tarnished's Furled Finger or Furled Finger Remedy to bring allies together into the Lands Between. The system allows players to advance through parts of Elden Ring as a team, although it continues to be suggested that FromSoftware should add shared co-op saves to allow players make equal progress during gameplay. It was also noticed that co-op experiences in many cases are too brief, meaning players have to continually summon allies after defeating certain bosses. There are a variety of ways Elden Ring might make its multiplayer better, though FromSoftware would be able to be working on additional online features.
Related: How Big Elden Ring's Map Actually Is
According to known Dark Souls modder Lance McDonald (via DualShockers), Elden Ring contains an out-of-bound coliseum area that may mean a multiplayer DLC later on. McDonald captured footage of the inaccessible arena before posting it to his YouTube channel. Within the video, your camera moves via a wall into darkness for a few seconds before emerging with the gates from the coliseum, eventually revealing the huge arena and stadium-like seating. On Twitter McDonald speculated that “Elden Ring will most likely get a multiplayer arena DLC some time later on,” though it ought to be explained that this is only speculation and FromSoftware has not yet commented around the leaked out-of-bounds coliseum.
Elden Ring already has multiplayer modes that connect players together in a single game world. Elden Ring's invasion system works by allowing players to invade another player's video game world while using Bloody Finger. This only works if a player opened their game to invaders, meaning they have to opt-in towards the PvP elements. Invaders can either be summoned for any sportful 1v1 or can forcefully interrupt a game in which a player has already summoned a co-op partner. Elden Ring also enables players to join forces to face difficult bosses together through Martyr Effigies, or Y-shaped statues that can be interacted with to summon allies. Both Elden Ring's PvP and cooperative modes offer in-depth multiplayer experiences, but an arena-style game mode could introduce more streamlined PvP combat.
It could be possible that Elden Ring's PvP could introduce a ranked feature that pins characters of equal power together in 1v1 battles. The arena, like this found in other medieval-era games, could also incorporate team-based combat, pinning categories of allies against each other. The way forward for Elden Ring continues to be anyone's guess, but given the rapid success of FromSoftware's latest release, it's more than likely development on the action RPG is far from over.
