Tencent reportedly acquired the licensing rights to Elden Ring two years ago and has been working on a free-to-play mobile version ever since. Tencent is reportedly developing a mobile version of Elden Ring inspired by Genshin Impact that’s free-to-play with microtransactions.
Reuters reports that Tencent acquired the licensing rights in 2022 before setting up a team to develop a prototype. It’s certainly unusual given that FromSoftware tends to avoid MTX, selling full packages upfront with expansions post-launch, but there has been a mobile spin-off based on one of its games before.
Bandai Namco released Slashy Souls, an endless runner, as a tie-in promotion for Dark Souls 3 in 2016. However, a full mobile version of one of its games is new territory.
The Elden Ring community takes on a range of strange and impressive challenges and keeps getting better. Tencent was also reportedly developing a mobile game in the Nier series for two years, but it was axed after it “struggled to find a compelling monetisation model”.
Another key reason Nier didn’t reach the finish line is that Tencent is allegedly unwilling to pay royalty fees over ten percent. Combined with the fact that work on the Elden Ring mobile game has reportedly been progressing slowly, it’s not guaranteed that it will see the light of day.
It may, like Nier, get cancelled. Of course, Tencent also published a mobile version of PUBG that is immensely successful, so we’ll just have to wait and see how Elden Ring fares.
Until it’s officially announced, anything could change behind closed doors.
