‘Game Of Thrones’ author George R.R. Martin isn’t writing that much of ‘Elden Ring’

Martin penned the backstory and world, but the characters and plot belong to Hidetaka Miyazaki.

Hype for From Software’s Elden Ring is damn near palpable, mainly because of George R.R. Martin’s involvement, but the legendary Game Of Thrones author may not be as involved with the game as everyone thought.

During Elden Ring‘s reveal at E3 2019, half of the excitement surrounding it was the announcement that Martin was helping with the story. After all, it’s not every day that an author of Martin’s stature works on a video game.

However, it sounds like he only helped pen the game’s backstory early on and isn’t writing characters or dialogue like many hoped he would. A recent Entertainment Weekly interview with Yasuhiro Kitao, a producer at From Software, explains how game director Hidetaka Miyazaki had Martin’s blessing to take the story wherever.

“George R.R. Martin wrote the original mythos for this game,” Kitao said through a translator, via Entertainment Weekly. “He created a backstory or a history that takes place many, many years before the events of the game itself, and he wrote this in collaboration with Miyazaki.” 

Kitao continued: “Once that original mythos was complete, George R.R. Martin was kind enough to leave that in our hands, so to speak, and to do with that what we will.”

Kitao goes on to mention that not every character or story beat from Martin’s notes will appear in Elden Ring when it comes out on January 21, 2022.

Given how infamous Martin is for not finishing Winds Of Winter, maybe it’s for the best that he wasn’t too busy working on Elden Ring. After all, everyone wants this game actually to come out, right?

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.