The Duskbloods

The Duskbloods is an upcoming multiplayer action RPG developed and published by FromSoftware, directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, and confirmed for a 2026 release exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2. It’s an eight-player PvPvE game — part versus, part co-op against the environment — starring a cast of more than a dozen vampire-like playable characters called the Bloodsworn, and it’s FromSoftware’s first game exclusive to a Nintendo home console since Lost Kingdoms II in 2003.

Announced during the April 2025 Switch 2 reveal Direct, it triggered an immediate and predictable wave of discourse: the gothic Victorian styling reads so strongly as Bloodborne that “what exactly is The Duskbloods?” became one of the most-asked FromSoftware questions of the past year. The short answer: not Bloodborne, not a Soulslike in the traditional sense, and not single-player-first — a genuinely new shape for a Miyazaki-directed game.

Technical Specifications

What It Actually Is

Matches drop up to eight Bloodsworn into maps built across converging points in time and space — the premise holds that humanity has reached its Twilight, a mysterious First Blood flows, and eras collide, letting FromSoftware mix Victorian streets with other periods entirely. Players fight each other, environmental threats, and powerful shared bosses in the same session, with shifting objectives and the option to form temporary alliances mid-match. Each Bloodsworn is a pre-built character with distinct weapons and abilities rather than a blank slate — closer to a roster than the class systems of FromSoftware’s Souls games — with customization systems layered on top.

Why a Switch 2 Exclusive

A brand-new Miyazaki-directed IP launching exclusively on Nintendo hardware was the April 2025 Direct’s biggest shock, and FromSoftware has framed it as a deliberate partnership built around the new console’s online infrastructure. It’s a striking bet either way: the studio’s audience built up through Sekiro, Elden Ring, and the Souls series lives overwhelmingly on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, and — as with Bloodborne on PS4 — history suggests exclusivity questions will follow this game for years.

The Road to Release

After the 2025 reveal, the game went quiet long enough that fans openly worried about a slip to 2027 — concerns parent company Kadokawa addressed directly in an August 2026 financial report listing The Duskbloods among titles “slated for 2026 release.” A June 2026 Nintendo Direct brought fresh in-game footage and confirmed a closed network test for summer, which began in late August 2026. A release date leak via an early Guardian preview pointed to September 24, 2026 — unconfirmed by FromSoftware at the time of writing, but consistent with a network test running weeks before launch, mirroring the studio’s usual pre-release cadence for online-heavy games.

The Bloodborne Question

The honest framing for anyone hoping this is a stealth Bloodborne successor: the aesthetic overlap is real and clearly intentional, but the structure is not. This is a match-based multiplayer game, not a hub-and-level action RPG — closer in shape to the industry’s extraction and arena experiments than to Yharnam. Whether Miyazaki’s team can make that shape carry FromSoftware’s signature world-density is the game’s central open question, and the network test is the first real evidence anyone outside the studio will have.

Where Things Stand

The Duskbloods is unreleased; preorders are live at major retailers and on the Switch 2 eShop, and the closed network test is the only way to play it as of this writing. We’ll update this entry with the confirmed release date, reception, and post-launch details once the game ships.