Elden Ring Mobile reportedly on the way from Tencent
Even though it's a fact that can be easy to forget, the mobile gaming world is pretty gargantuan. We have a tendency to focus on what some would call "real gaming," discounting how the likes of Tencent and King have made their fortunes peddling games to players on the go.
As games like Raid: Shadow Legends and Call of Duty: Mobile permeate culture and society, it makes this snobbery all the more unfounded. Mobile gaming is real gaming, and it's equally as real as the big bucks that it makes. Now, there's an idea that one of the grandest games in recent memory could be coming to mobile.
Tencent is reportedly working on Elden Ring Mobile
Click to enlargeA new report from Reuters claims that Tencent, the Chinese gaming giant that has had the mobile world cornered for years, could be working on a mobile adaptation of FromSoftware's Elden Ring. The company bought a 16% stake in FromSoftware back in 2022 and purchased the licensing rights for the game.
Although progress has apparently been slow, it seems as though Tencent plans to make Elden Ring Mobile free-to-play with in-app purchases available, akin to the model of Genshin Impact. Unsurprisingly, the premium action role-playing model of Elden Ring is "at odds" with what Tencent wants.
Who knows how this will go down with fans, as it makes for a pretty drastic change to Elden Ring's massive, sword-swinging, formula. Still, maybe the mere fact that it'll be on mobile at all will make up for it.
Tencent has scrapped projects like this before
Click to enlargeThough this is a fascinating plan (and one that could cause controversy via in-app purchases), there is still a chance that the project could fall through. After all, Tencent reportedly made plans to make a similar adaptation of the Nier series for mobile but axed it over concerns about monetisation.
Whether these concerns amount to worries that players won't pay or that the payments required from players to make the game sustainable is unknown. Elden Ring Mobile is an admittedly strange project given the scale of the base Elden Ring, but who knows, it could be a genuinely brilliant adaptation of the game.
As Elden Ring players grow impatient for news about the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, it's sure to rattle a few cages that the IP could expand before delivering what was already promised. We're not sure our eyes can handle hundreds of hours on the small screens in our pockets, but we'll be damned if we don't give it a go.
