George R.R. Martin Hasn't Got Time To Play Elden Ring
It's the game that consumed us all in 2022. Remember back to February when we poured tens of hours into toppling Margit the Fell Omen, only to realise this is the first palm-shredding step on our quest to complete Elden Ring? The game was a phenomenon that passed few of us by,
While we'll have to wait and see whether God of War Ragnarok can stop Elden Ring's inevitable path to sit on the throne as Game of the Year, it turns out not everyone knows what they've been missing out on in the Lands Between. The thing is, most of us didn't help write the story.
Why Hasn't George R.R. Martin Played Elden Ring?
In the lengthy interview with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, George R.R. Martin explains how he was tasked with building the Elden Ring world, but not the current storyline. Basically, he had to write the events from thousands of years before that split the realm and led to the war-torn Lands Between we see. When asked if he's played, Martin laughed, "I have not played it, because people seem to want this Winds of Winter book."
Martin is obviously referring to the sixth book in his A Song of Ice and Fire saga, which he also says is about 3/4 of the way finished. Although we'd love to see his thoughts on this world he helped craft, Martin added, "I have, unfortunately, a totally addictive personality. I did play video games a long, long time ago, I played games like Railroad Tycoon, Master of Orion, and Homeworld, and I would get sucked into it. Weeks, months would go by and I'd be sitting there in my red flannel bathrobe just saying 'one more game, one more game.' I can't, I gotta go cold turkey on this, this is gonna kill me here."
it's been a whopping 11 years since A Dance of Dragons released, and barely a day goes by without fans sending angry messages the author's way. Still, Martin has a lot on, as well as writing Fire & Blood that House of the Dragon is based on, he recently released The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty as a graphic novel accompaniment. These have led to frustrated Thrones fans demanding The Winds of Winter, so it's probably for the best Martin hasn't been playing Elden Ring.
Will There Be An Elden Ring Sequel?
If Martin does ever decide to pick up a copy of Elden Ring, who knows, we might have a sequel. Fans know FromSoftware has plans to continue the IP beyond the base game, and that could have something to do with the various leaks of PvP arenas and long-rumoured DLCs. With the Game Awards just over the horizon, we'd be surprised if there wasn't something related to the Lands Between revealed soon.
Beyond that, there are fanciful ideas for a live-action Elden Ring series or movie, which would fit alongside video game adaptations like Netflix's The Witcher or Amazon's Fallout and God of War shows. FromSoftware has delivered plenty of sequels to the Dark Souls games, and while we're still waiting for Bloodborne 2, an Elden Ring sequel makes a lot of sense. Hopefully, Martin will eventually have time to play then.