On August 20, the first Dark Souls DLC — Ashes of Ariandel — was officially released.
Countless players who had already cleared the base game — some even completing New Game+2 or +3 — could no longer hold back their excitement. They eagerly launched the game once more and, following the in-game prompts, stepped into the brand-new DLC.
A world trapped within a painting.
Before launch, aside from the PV shown at E3, the team had later released a second trailer. Both showcased the new bosses and bits of the map's design, but no one expected that the new area itself would literally be inside a painting.
Of course, since this was a fantasy world, a "painted world" wasn't that strange — as long as it was fun, players would accept it.
The DLC's main story took about four hours to complete — though that could stretch longer depending on how many times the player died or how thoroughly they explored.
Despite the relatively short runtime, it was packed with content. The monsters were strong, and the bosses were formidable — definitely not something for first-playthrough characters. It required late-game strength from the base game to enter, ensuring a solid level of challenge.
Players who entered using a New Game+ save would have an easier time — regular enemies were manageable, and only bosses and elite mobs posed any real threat.
Ichin had designed five boss fights for this DLC, two of which were dual-boss encounters. That was a lot for a single DLC, and he'd stuffed the levels full of new loot and weapons. Practically every new area offered some kind of reward to discover.
On launch day, Ichin — as always — started a livestream, hopping between various streamers' broadcasts. He watched players' brilliant plays, laughed at their moments of despair, and enjoyed the chaos unfolding across the community.
The reception was overwhelmingly positive: the DLC earned a 94% positive rating and even shot to #1 on Steam's weekly sales chart, reviving Dark Souls' popularity four months after its initial release.
Grinning at the sales reports in his office, Ichin said,
"Something tells me we'll see a repeat of this at the end of the year."
The second DLC, The Ringed City, would contain even more content — with bosses that exuded an even greater sense of pressure. Ichin couldn't wait to see all those self-proclaimed "pro players" crumble before them.
Setting the Dark Souls project aside for the moment, he opened the development progress report from the Shanghai Studio for Apex.
By late August, the game had already gone through three rounds of internal testing, the tester count growing from 60 to 200, then to nearly 300 participants.
All game systems were now almost fully complete, and according to Umiko's report, the game's release could be moved up to September.
"September 15, huh? That's about a month and a half away."
After reading Umiko's proposed launch date, Ichin nodded and sent back an approval email, agreeing to the earlier release.
The schedule included buffer time for unforeseen issues, so there was no real risk.
A day later, all their official social accounts released a three-minute Apex introduction trailer, ending with the new launch date — September 15, a full month ahead of schedule.
The announcement instantly set the shooter and battle-royale communities ablaze.
"Let's go! It's launching early!"
"That's crazy fast!"
"Well, it's built on the Titanfall framework — a lot of assets can be reused."
"I can't wait! But… why can't we pilot Titans in this one?"
"Didn't you read the announcement? They're not adding Titans for now. The dev team said they'll evaluate balance implications later."
"If you want Titans, just play Titanfall's online mode! Still plenty of players there!"
Indeed, Ichin hadn't abandoned Titanfall's multiplayer mode despite Apex's development. The Titanfall team continued maintaining it, adding fresh content and new modes regularly.
Although the active player count had dipped, it still held steady at around 60,000 concurrent players daily — an impressive number.
Overall, every game his studio had released so far maintained a healthy, loyal player base. Even older titles like Slay the Spire and Hollow Knight continued to thrive thanks to ongoing updates and online events.
By contrast, Ichin couldn't help but poke fun at a certain company that had promised a new Battlefield this year. After the disaster that was Battlefield 2042, its player numbers had kept plummeting — and the developers hadn't even bothered to fix it until concurrent players dropped below a thousand. Only then did they start announcing "major updates"… which still failed to revive interest.
At this point, even cheat developers had given up on the game, refocusing their efforts on PUBG instead.
And now, despite all the big talk about the upcoming Battlefield, players and the media alike weren't buying the hype.
Everyone could tell what was coming — bigger maps, flashier effects… which just meant higher system requirements.
Given how poorly optimized Battlefield 2042 had been, the new game would likely be another hardware nightmare for PC players.
Worse yet, the game was expensive and still pushing "preorder early-access" nonsense.
Ichin had asked around in his company — the FPS enthusiasts among his staff had no intention of buying it on day one. They'd rather grind Apex ranked mode once it launched.
Hazuki commented, "Apex releasing in September sounds like a good window. After all, Starfield is coming in November. Different genres, sure, but it'll still overlap in attention — Bethesda's reputation and scale are nothing to underestimate."
Stretching lazily, Ichin replied,
"True, but we're not exactly weak ourselves. The Shanghai team's got plenty of shooter veterans, and Umiko's an ace designer. The core gameplay of Apex is going to be top-tier in the industry."
Hazuki smiled. "I've always known Umiko's capable. Oh right — once Apex is done, isn't she coming back?"
"Yeah, she is. She's been away for a long time — everyone's really looking forward to having her back."
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