Miyazaki on The Duskbloods: 'a game I want to see exist' — and FromSoftware hasn't abandoned single-player

In an interview with IGN (with editor Michael Higham), Hidetaka Miyazaki, president of FromSoftware and director of Elden Ring and Bloodborne, opened up about The Duskbloods — the Switch 2 exclusive that mixes PvPvE, board game influences, and the online ideas that never fit in the Souls games.

A game Miyazaki wanted to see exist

The first thing Miyazaki says about The Duskbloods is that it's not a change of direction — it's the realization of piled-up ideas.

This is a game I want to see exist... there's definitely a bright future for online games.

FromSoftware's president explains that many online elements from previous titles — like the Covenant system and Invasions — came from ideas that didn't fit in the single-player context.

In Demon's Souls and the Dark Souls series, there were a lot of unique online elements. There were also a lot of other things we wanted to try that didn't fit in the context of a single-player game. Over time, a lot of those ideas piled up.

The board game influence

Asked about the influence of board games, Miyazaki points to two specific systems that came directly from them.

The first is the Virtue system that are basically victory points. It's not directly a PvP thing. It's a common system in a lot of board games and something that through my own experience of playing board games has definitely rubbed off on me. The other thing is the Sigil system, which is very similar to a lot of RPG elements you might find in a tabletop game.

It's the Miyazaki signature: taking familiar mechanics and twisting them into something new — now in a multiplayer context.

Single-player is not dead

With two multiplayer games in a row (Nightreign and The Duskbloods), the community wondered if FromSoftware changed course. Miyazaki is categorical.

We still have a heavy focus on single-player content as well. This is just something that happened to work out the way it did. Personally, it's very fun to make a multiplayer game like this... the more you work on something multiplayer for a long time, it scratches that itch only to want to make something single-player again.

The message: multiplayer is a creative experiment, not a new strategic direction.

The Nintendo partnership

Miyazaki also discusses the relationship with Nintendo — and why it works for both sides.

I'm just focused on making what I've been wanting to make, regardless of how viable that is from a business standpoint. That's why having this relationship with Nintendo is great — there's a lot that we can lean on them for while just focusing on the actual gameplay. They can make it work outside of that.

It's the ideal division of labor: Nintendo handles the business, FromSoftware handles the game.

The future of online games

Asked about the multiplayer landscape (which saw many games launch and die quickly), Miyazaki stays optimistic.

As for online games, there's definitely a bright future. There's always going to be a need for people to interact with others. Even with The Duskbloods, there's probably still a lot that we could have done and can do, so it's never a finished book when it comes to multiplayer games. I definitely don't look at it negatively at all.

For the creator of Dark Souls, online is a natural extension of what he's always done — just now with other people in the same room.

Why it matters

The interview matters because it's Miyazaki talking about FromSoftware's future at a moment of transition: the Switch 2 exclusive, the move into multiplayer, and the Nintendo partnership. To understand where the genre's most influential studio is heading — and what to expect from Elden Ring and beyond — this is the essential conversation.