Publisher Bandai Namco has announced Elden Ring’s release date has been delayed to February 25, 2022, pushing the long-awaited game’s launch back by a little over a month. At Summer Game Fest 2021, Elden Ring’s release date was originally set for January 21, but it seems plans have changed at Dark Souls developer FromSoftware with only a few months to go.

Recent ratings and minor leaks have served as concrete indications that Elden Ring is in the last stretches of its development. Its journey in the public eye hasn’t been a particularly long as far as highly anticipated AAA games go, having first been announced with a mysterious cinematic trailer during E3 2019. FromSoftware leadership has become more forthcoming about its development, in-game content, and current state than many past Soulsborne titles since its 2021 gameplay and release date reveal, with producer Yasuhiro Kitao having most recently confirmed Elden Ring’s development was almost complete as of early October.

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However, it appears the game isn’t quite as finished as previously hoped. On Monday morning, the official Elden Ring Twitter account announced a new Elden Ring release date: February 25, 2022. This places its arrival roughly one month after the initially revealed release date of January 21. Bandai Namco thanks players for their “trust & patience” and points to the simultaneously announced Elden Ring Closed Network Test being held between November 12 and 14 (for which participants can register now on the official Bandai Namco website) as the first opportunity to try out Elden Ring ahead of the new launch date.

The newly announced Closed Network Test may be related to a recent Elden Ring gameplay video leak, which showed the game’s player character roaming an area in the open-world Lands Between. With the November playtest only a month away, it’s possible the leaker somehow obtained footage of the build which will be playable for selected Closed Network Test participants. The language in the Elden Ring tweet suggests the reason for the small, last-minute delay could be related to polish, as the scope of the game’s world and mechanics “exceeding initial expectations” possibly implies some systems won’t be up to release standard by January.

As the first true open-world game in the Soulsborne series, it’s not hard to believe Elden Ring has run into development complications necessitating a delay. Having entered production after the end of Dark Souls 3 support in 2017, a four-year production cycle for a game of its scale – as Elden Ring’s world size necessitates towers, fast travel, and other open-world genre fixtures – is standard, so one month’s extra wait is not as severe of a delay as it could otherwise be.

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Elden Ring will be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on February 25, 2022

Source: Elden Ring/Twitter, Bandai Namco

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Phillip Tinner
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Phillip Tinner is a Game News Editor at Screen Rant, and he has written about all things gaming, film, and TV for the site since 2018. Phillip has a B.A. in History from Texas A&M University and is fascinated by the many areas where the virtual and real worlds meet. He can normally be found rewatching an old TV show, taking a hike, or complaining about new video games.

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