Phil Spencer Has Played "Quite A Bit" Of Elden Ring, Calls It Miyazaki's "Most Ambitious Game"

Elden Ring is the next game from Hidetaka Miyazaki, director of Dark Souls and Bloodborne, and fans are desperate for more information. Even so much as a brief mention has been enough to get Miyazaki's fanbase aflutter--so the news from GameSpot's recent interview with Xbox boss Phil Spencer might be enough to send them into a frenzy.

When asked how much of Elden Ring he had seen, Spencer told GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain, "I've seen actually quite a bit. I've played quite a bit."

While Spencer can't say too much, he gave us enough to set the hype high. "As somebody who's played all of Miyazaki's games over at least the last decade, this is clearly the most ambitious game that he's done," he says. "I mean, I love his games, but seeing some of the gameplay mechanics stuff that he's tackling, he and the team are tackling this time, of the setting, working with another creator in terms of story. I love it."

The other creator Spencer mentions is, of course, Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, who has worked on the story for the upcoming open world game. It's also supposedly going to have more open-ended areas than is typical in a From Software game. They typically have branching paths, but use a series of passages and locked doors to guide your progress.

According to Spencer, Elden Ring is Miyazaki "expanding his horizons." He also says that leaves the room while Spencer plays. "I think that's because I'm a bad player, and then when he comes back we'll have a conversation about things that I think," he says. "He's so passionate about what he does. It's one of the things I just love about getting to work with him on some of these games and seeing them come to our platform."

A release date has not been set for Elden Ring yet. It was announced during Microsoft's 2019 E3 press conference, but it's not yet clear which systems the game will release for. At the time, it appeared like it was coming to Xbox One and PS4. With the Xbox Series X and PS5 now in the wild, that may not be the case. However, Dark Souls 2 did launch on Xbox 360 and PS3 after the newer systems were already available.

Elsewhere in the same interview, Spencer told us about why we shouldn't be worried by staff turnover at Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries.

One of Miyazaki's earlier games, Demon's Souls, has been remade for the PS5 launch. GameSpot was not given code early enough to review the game ahead of launch, but you can check out our Demon's Souls early review impressions.

The Xbox Series X and S are available now. Check out GameSpot's coverage of Microsoft's new machines below:

• Xbox Series X review
• Xbox Series S review
• Xbox Launch Game Reviews
• Xbox Series X/S Availability For Launch Day: Where To Buy The Series X