Game director Hidetaka Miyazaki—well known for his work in directing several critically acclaimed game from FromSoftware like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and most recently, Elden Ring—has expressed interest in exploring multiplayer in a future project.
Speaking to IGN following Elden Ring‘s victories at the recent DICE Awards, Miyazaki, when asked about what technologies, trends, or ideas he finds exciting, answered with multiplayer. He especially mentions Escape from Tarkov in his answer as an interesting project.
“I’m not really sure whether this is the latest trend, but the multiplayer elements that in terms of both technology and the game designs, we keep updating [them],” said Miyazaki. “So I’m really interested in that as one of the fans and one of the creators. Especially speaking of [Escape from] Tarkov, for example. So I’m basically paying attention to those elements as a creator and fan of the game.
“Other folks in the industry, they keep updating multiplayer network functionality and the game design in order to change the way that the players are involved in the gameplay, and how the players are used as one of the resources for the gameplay. So that’s why I’m paying attention to these elements.”
Originally released in 2017, Escape from Tarkov is one of the first of a genre that today is referred to as an extraction shooter. Focusing on realistic gameplay as well as a high level of tension, the game sparked the release of several other games with similar ideas, such as Hunt: Showdown, and most recently, Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0‘s DMZ mode.