For fans hoping for more news of Elden Ring, parent company Bandai Namco set up for disappointment. Bandai Namco’s E3 2021 presentation name was sneakily renamed from a generic showcase to Bandai Namco Presents: House of Ashes not too soon before their timeslot on June 15th. This may have been a hint that they were planning to focus more on The Dark Pictures Anthology series rather than their newest title, which was announced at the Summer Games Fest Kickoff Live! Other than this change, they remained quiet about their potential announcements before the E3 event.
The presentation, unsurprisingly, opened with a trailer for House of Ashes, the newest installment in The Dark Pictures Anthology series. The game follows a couple of small groups of military personnel who fall into a hidden temple in the ground and must survive as they are hunted by the supernatural. It is slated for release on October 22, 2021.
They then conducted an interview about The Dark Pictures Anthology series and House of Ashes specifically with Executive Producer Dan. Discussed was the research, history behind the series, some of the antagonists, and of course voice actress Ashley Tisdale. He was also quick to point out that there are at least 60 unique deaths for the characters in the game.
Unfortunately, that was all from Bandai Namco this year, and the showcase lasted around 10 minutes. They did not discuss a single other intellectual property they own. It was perhaps the shortest showcase of all of E3, and was not well received by fans who were looking forward to hearing about more games, or were maybe even looking for surprises. However, The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes will not be easily forgotten.