Although fans of the Game of Thrones series have been yearning for news about the next book, The Winds of Winter, they have not heard anything concrete in years. Author George RR Martin has been working hard on perfecting the sixth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire book series since 2011, when the fifth book – A Dance With Dragons – was released. He has given a few updates in the time between, but no release date has been given just yet. In the meantime, he has been working on a new project which just received its release date.

On Friday the Summer Games Fest 2021 kicked off hosted by video game pundit Geoff Keighley.

The show boasted dozens of world exclusive announcements pertaining to the video game industry, but his final reveal showed off the next game from Japanese developers FromSoftware.

Elden Ring, an action role-playing game that was first announced in 2019, received its first trailer on Friday. On top of continuing the lineage of Souls-like games, the project was written by Martin.

The writer worked on the overarching “mythos” of Elden Ring, making it his first-ever video game project.

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Martin’s time on the video game was most likely behind the scenes, writing the story, themes and dialogues.

The trailer revealed at Summer Games Fest 2021 also came with a release date for Martin’s new project: January 21, 2022.

The adventure leaps into a brand new world penned by the legendary author, concerning the breakdown of “The Golden Order” in the “Lands Between” which are ruled by “Queen Marika The Eternal”.

President of FromSoftware, Hidetaka Miyazaki, praised Martin and his involvement last year, saying he was “still unable to put into words how grateful” he was that “Mr Martin agreed to our offer”.

Speaking further about Martin’s involvement in Elden Ring, Miyazaki said he told the author about his vision for the game, before adding: “This allowed us to have many free and creative conversations regarding the game in which Mr Martin later used as a base to write the overarching mythos for the game world itself.”

Miyazaki went on: “This mythos proved to be full of interesting characters and drama along with a plethora of mystical and mysterious elements as well.

“It was a wonderful source of stimulus for me and the development staff. Elden Ring’s world was constructed using this mythos and stimulus as a base.

“Even I myself find it hard to contain my excitement from time to time. We hope that everyone else is looking forward to the world we have created.”

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In the meantime, no updates have been given on the Winds of Winter just yet.

Martin has not mentioned the book in some time and a release date has not been announced.

Last month the American writer posted on his blog where he confessed he was “behind” in his schedule.

Writing on his Not A Blog website, Martin said: “Way back when on LiveJournal, when I started this column or journal or whatever it is, I called it my ‘Not A Blog,’ because I could see that regular blogging was a lot of work, and I didn’t think I had the time to devote to it.

“I was late on a book even then, though I do not recall which one.”

Martin later added: “And when a lot of stuff happens very fast, I fall further and further behind.

“I am hugely behind right now, and the prospect of trying to catch up is feeling increasingly oppressive. My life has become one of extremes these past few months.”

Martin is also working with HBO to produce the upcoming Game of Thrones spin-offs House of the Dragon, a Nymeria series, 9 Voyages and a Dunk and Egg series.

Winds of Winter does not yet have a release date.

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