When The Duskbloods was officially announced for Switch 2 back in late 2025, the trailer and description that it was a PvPvE title might have sent the wrong message, game director Hidetaka Miyazaki said to GameSpot recently.
When it comes to PvPvE games, these are generally associated with the extraction-shooter genre, something that The Duskbloods very much is not. As Miyazaki explained, The Duskbloods can’t be categorized so simply.
“The PvPvE [label is] a little bit confusing in the context of this game. It’s not that we set out with that exact label when pitching to Nintendo,” Miyazaki said via a translator. “We had a couple of key things that we really wanted to do: The Sigil and Event system to create this [sense] of constant drama [and] excitement between players. The relationships, [and] the Virtue system contributes to that [as well]. It’s not just 100% PvP; there [are] ways to win and enjoy the matches outside of simply playing against other players. Those were the things that we wanted to accomplish first and foremost. Saying it was a PvPvE game makes it sound like that’s all that there is, and saying it’s a PvE game doesn’t really do it justice either. It’s sort of just a combination of [the] two. Enemies specifically draw inspiration from our previous titles, and fitting them in made sense for our methodology.”
“When we originally announced the game as a PvPvE title, there was probably a lot of confusion thinking it was like an extraction [game], and there’s definitely a sort of an association with that type of gameplay. We definitely look back at that now and think, ‘Hmm, maybe that wasn’t the best way to refer to it.’ It doesn’t do the game a lot of justice, but yeah, that was [the reasoning behind it].”
This isn’t From Software’s first foray into focused online multiplayer play, as last year, the studio launched Elden Ring Nightreign. Following the release of the original Elden Ring and its critically acclaimed expansion Shadow of the Erdtree, Nightreign remixed the souls-like formula with a roguelike twist, challenging groups of players to survive and thrive as they took on bosses while darkness encroached on them.
For more details on From Software’s new game before it lands on Switch 2, you can read up on how it was inspired by the likes of Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin and Vampire: The Masquerade, and why The Duskbloods is like nothing we’ve ever played before. Then check out our primer on what you can expect from it.
