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There’s some big rumors going around about Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition.
This is the special edition of Elden Ring made for the Switch 2. It bundles both Elden Ring and its big expansion Shadow of the Erdtree. On the face of it, having both in one package is a steal. That makes it an amazing introduction to the game for Nintendo fans.
But then rumors spread about the game’s poor performance through the week. Thankfully, we got some solid evidence to figure out what this is all about.
Elden Ring At Gamescom
NintendoLife editor Felix Sanchez shared his firsthand experience playing Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition at Gamescom. Sanchez has been working at NintendoLife for over two years now, and you can see he’s talking directly to Alex Olney on video. So we can rely on this as a reliable account with credible sources.
Sanchez says something disturbing off the bat. He was not allowed to record his gameplay and share it to the public. He also explains that he only got to play it undocked, and that’s all he can attest to.
Sanchez does say that the graphics look great. While expectations are lowered for a portable like the Switch 2, he says he is impressed with what he saw. FromSoftware or whoever did the port may have made use of the tricks other studios like Capcom used for their Switch 2 versions of games like Street Fighter 6.
The Moment Of Truth
Sanchez confirms and details Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition’s performance issues. When he starts up the game and goes through the tutorial it is able to stick to the locked 30 FPS framerate. When he brings his character to the outside world, this is where it tanks. Framerate goes down to 20, even 15 frames per second. Sanchez says it does go back to 30 FPS, but the framerate change is abrupt and jarring.
Hold On… We Have New Evidence!
A few days after Gamescom, Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition was also on display at Fan Expo Canada. Content creator MDee14 shared video of himself playing the game, and this time, the Switch 2 was docked. We’re sharing a 4K recording of his video, but MDee14 did not test or assess the performance and framerate of the game itself.
You can watch the video below. You can skip to around 5 minutes in to see the open world.
We won’t decide if this video shows Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition running at 30 FPS, or higher or below that. But we feel comfortable saying there are no obvious issues with either the graphics or performance.
Why Is Bandai Namco Hiding This?
Olney and Sanchez share something that may explain what is going on. When CD Projekt RED demoed Cyberpunk 2077 on the Switch 2, it actually had worse performance than the final product. They brought a 7 week old build of the port to the public as a demo. They also made it clear it did not reflect the quality of the final game.
So this could be the same situation. Bandai Namco Europe may not have been able to coordinate to get a better build of Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition to Gamescom. They could have rushed changes at Fan Expo Canada after seeing the rumors coming out of the first event.
This does raise the question of why Bandai Namco didn’t just explain the situation to fans and game press. That could have been another logistical issue in their marketing department.
We don’t really know any of this for sure, of course. But if the issues turn out to be in the final product, we hope they can update Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition in the future to buff out that tarnish and make the game truly shine.
UPDATE: Bandai Namco have shared a video of Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition running on the Switch 2’s handheld mode. It’s a very short clip showing different parts of the game, including the open world.
As a result, it doesn’t quite debunk the claims about the game’s performance. It’s up in the air if this is a newer build, or if it’s been selectively edited. In any case, you can watch it on Facebook Reels here.
