Speculation about FromSoftware’s next title really heated up yesterday, with Game of Thrones writer George R. R. Martin talking about “consulting” on a Japanese game that has morphed into another large scale rumor about a potential game called Great Rune. You can read about that here.
It’s got fans of the company excited, as they’re eager to see what FromSoftware is up to post-Sekiro, but it also seems those getting excited for Great Rune may be headed for some disappointment, one prominent Italian journalists says.
As you can see from his tweet below, Antonio Fucito, a gaming journalist who writes for several Italian game publications, has poured some cold water on the rumor- a bit of it, at least. He says that he has heard of the game in question, and apparently it’s something that’s been going around for a few years now. He does also say, though, that it will not be “fully” open world, will run on the same engine as FromSoftware’s previous few titles, and that he doesn’t think it will be called Great Rune (though it may be a codename).
While he doesn’t go into details, not being fully open world seems to hint that the game will be like much of From’s last several games in having a large open area that you can traverse in multiple ways, but not what most think of as “open world,” in the vein of something like Assassin’s Creed.
Obviously for now, we have to file all of this under speculation. If the game exists, it will most likely be unveiled in some form at this year’s E3. However, it is also worth noting here that besides the Fucito comments, there does seem to be some degree of confusion surrounding this. While Martin did confirm he consulted on a Japanese game through his blog, the Great Rune “leak” came from an unrelated 4chan leak that happened around the same time. At some point, it seems in reporting it that the two rumors fused together, so even if the Martin/From collaboration is real, it may be significantly different than the rumored Great Rune.