Elden Ring’s First Official DLC Since Shadow Of The Erdtree Splits Gamers

2 hours ago 10

Elden Ring Marika close up from final cut scene

Published Jun 23, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT

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Having introduced an entire generation of players to the worlds of FromSoftware, Elden Ring has grown to become one of the studio's most recognizable properties despite only having a single entry for players to enjoy. Although the official expansion of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has certainly helped prolong its lifespan, Elden Ring has had a noticeable lack of additional content updates outside of fan-made modding projects.

Despite the current content drought, Elden Ring is officially returning this summer with a new DLC for players to look forward to. While some fans couldn't be happier to revisit The Lands Between from a new perspective, the official project has already been getting more than its fair share of criticism online.

Elden Ring Malenia art from trailer HDR-1

Releasing on August 28 for all platforms, the Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition is a new edition of the game that includes the original Elden Ring, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, and a handful of other goodies to incentivize new players. However, plenty of fans like Soulless Swordsman on X are confused about what exactly this new edition is bringing to the table, and if its even worth the asking price.

Officially adding in 4 new armor sets, 4 melee weapons, two new starting classes, and 3 new outfits for your trusty steed, Torrent, fans have had a pretty mixed reaction to the news. Even with players who are excited about some "pretty sick" starter weapons, others feel there isn't much current content to make it worth revisiting all these years later unless you're buying it for the first time on the Switch 2.

Players on Reddit have been far less accepting of the update as well, with a plethora of players directly comparing it to the infamous The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion's "horse armor DLC." Most of the complaints over the lackluster content also come from the fact that FromSoftware is advertising it as an official new DLC, which VeraKorradin derides as "DLC = new starting classes and that's about it."

Spellcasters from Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree

Although this is far from the first time FromSoftware has released a new Elden Ring edition that has gotten a lukewarm reception from fans, the fact that players have had to wait well over a year for the post-launch content has been making matters far worse. Its status as a paid DLC, rather than a free update, certainly isn't helping matters.

Even if the official price hasn't been revealed just yet, the consensus seems to be that anything over $5 would be egregious for the lack of new content. It's made worse by the fact that even FromSoftware themselves have acknowledged that starting classes don't really matter much, given that most of Elden Ring's enjoyability comes from build crafting as you progress through the game.

While the upgrade is certainly a "bonus" for the Switch 2 owners, just getting into the game with new options to choose from, the Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition isn't likely to draw too many players back into replaying the game on PC or consoles anytime soon. Thankfully, though, it's far from the only upcoming FromSoft release for Elden Ring fans to enjoy