FromSoftware has delivered its share of all-time greats with the Dark Souls and Armored Core series, not forgetting about the acclaimed Elden Ring, developed in  colaboration with George R.R. Martin. It would be easy to assume that given such a critically and commercially successful catalogue, the Japanese video game company had an immeasurable workforce at this point, with work on Armored Core 6 and the upcoming Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree going at full steam. However, that is not the case.

The studio remains fairly small since its genesis in 1986 and its constant output of high quality games, and managed to develop both Elden Ring and Armored Core 6 with a development staff of about 300 people. This was done by shifting staff around the games according to the specific needs of each project and the period of development – it’s commonly known that a project needs more hands on deck when the release date is approaching, and that is likely to be happening right now with Armored Core 6, which is slated to release on August 25, 2023.

To put this into perspective, HoYoverse’s acclaimed open-world RPG Genshin Impact had over 700 staff working on the game in 2021, with the full size of the studio in 2022 reportedly at 5000 employees. Another interesting comparison comes from Ubisoft, with around 2000 developers working on the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

Considering that Armored Core 6 is nearing release, it seems likely that part of the development pool is going to be shifted to the development of the Elden Ring DLC. Or if we want to speculate a little further, maybe some other new project… potentially the rumored Elden Ring 2.

Source: PCGamer