‘Elden Ring: Nightreign’ fans are struggling to find enough people to play with

Elden Ring: Nightreign launched earlier today (30 May) with hundreds of thousands checking out the Elden Ring spin-off – however some people are struggling.

• READ MORE: ‘Elden Ring: Nightreign’ review: hardcore spin-off for the diehards

Developers FromSoftware released the massive, open-world adventure game Elden Ring in 2022. The Shadow Of Erdtree expansion followed last year and wrapped up the story of The Lands Between.

However a few months later FromSoftware announced a spin-off, Elden Ring: Nightreign, which was designed to “offer players a new gaming experience by reimagining the game’s core design.”

After a series of celebrated stress tests, Elden Ring: Nightreign finally launched earlier today and saw more than 300,000 people playing (via SteamDB). However the game currently has a “mixed” review score on Steam with many players complaining about the restrictive multiplayer requirements.

Nightreign can be played solo but it was designed for groups of three to take on the series of boss battles. However it doesn’t offer cross-play or a two-player mode.

“FromSoftware dropping the hardest boss ever: HAVING FRIENDS… Very bold of Miyazaki to think I have two friends to play with. I loved Elden Ring and FromSoft games in general but no duos, crossplay or voice chat is unacceptable in a game that really requires working together. This is a complete nightmare to play with randoms,” reads one review. ”No two-player co-op? Pass. I’m not here to play with randoms leaving out of the blue,” said another.

Nightreign is a lot fun if you're playing with friends in a Voice Chat. But if you're looking to play it solo, or join up with randos, I don't recommend picking up the game since there's no in-game voice chat. Also there's no crossplay for the game, just a heads up. pic.twitter.com/M7MEGMunmI

— Delta169 (@Delta1169) May 30, 2025

“If you have three friends you can talk to and play regularly with, you will have a great time, the connection is smooth, the map is full of events and the game loop is very interesting. However I am a 41-year-old man and I don’t have friends to regularly play this with and playing via the solo queue with randoms is hard,” says one negative review.

Speaking about the lack of two-player mode before the game launched, director Junya Ishizaki said the feature was “simply overlooked” during development. “We’re very sorry about that,” he added (via IGN).

Ishizaki went on to say the main focus was the three-player co-op but they also “put a lot of effort” into creating a solo-player experience. “In putting all our efforts into that aspect, we kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect, but this is something that we are looking at and considering for post-launch support as well.”

In a three-star review, NME wrote: “Ultimately, Nightreign will live or die by the community that grows around it. If you loved the original Elden Ring, Nightreign is a playful reimagining that offers another 40 hours of epic combat. But if you weren’t sold the first time around, there’s nothing here that will change your mind.”

In other news, Bella Ramsey has spoken about the importance of gaming, saying they used online worlds to “explore” their gender identity.

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