I witnessed the long wait between Elden Ring's initial 2019 announcement and its 2023 release. In the lack of follow-up news following its E3 2019 trailer, there was a collective, meme-ified despair that only From Software's most devout gamers could evoke.

History is doomed to repeat itself. We have obtained screenshots, which have been a source of worthy speculation throughout Erdtree, and FromSoftware is otherwise characteristically mysterious about their upcoming DLC, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

It's no wonder that the announcement made near the end of the exhibition at Summer Game Fest upset fans. We had been devouring and waiting for more news, and the game, introduced as "a new look at a vast world that we can't wait to explore again," was so enticing that you could hear the entire Internet shaking to the edge of its seat.

It turned out to be the look of Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth. While the next installment of the remake is certainly welcome news, we lowlifes are left stranded in the "land of the in-between." A thread on the game's subreddit lamenting the lack of news, along with a very appropriate gif of the "madness" debuff, has attracted nearly 15,000 upvotes.

u/bloodhunter2500 agrees with my assessment of the cyclical nature of this news hunger: "About two years ago, the era of hollowing out ended, but it seems that that golden era is ending and a new era of hollowing out is beginning."

But if you're a more seasoned From Software fan, you may not be so surprised, as u/BannedSvenhoek86 states: "Until [Armored Core 6] comes out, there probably won't be much. It's not [FromSoftware's] way to go crazy with pre-release stuff, especially when it comes to things like DLC."

There is no doubt that the resurgence of "Armored Core" is a major reason for the slower DLC release schedule, and I am sure it is more than worth the wait. Nevertheless, there is a good chance that we will be getting into the cockpit of the mech long before we get the rust off our dirty souls.

Or, as u/Igagug suggests, "We're going to announce the release date of the DLC and the PC version of Bloodborne at the same time. The likelihood of this is low to say the least, but one cannot criticize those who have found a way to deal with it, especially in the face of months of theorizing.