andy.chalk@pcgamer.com (Andy Chalk)
2024-05-27 12:39:39
www.pcgamer.com
Less than a week after rolling out of its two-year early access period into full release, Songs of Conquest has now surpassed 500,000 copies sold—and more importantly, developer Lavapotion has unveiled big plans for the future, including four DLC releases and a “major expansion” planned for summer 2025.
The expansion, called Bleak East, will add two new factions to Songs of Conquest—the Vanir and the Roots—and “a large singleplayer campaign that will tell the story of how they came to be and how they will affect the larger world of Aerbor.”
“The Bleak East lies to the North-East of Patrium, and is the home of descendants from both Arleon and Barya,” lead game designer Carl Toftfelt wrote on Steam. “Hardy settlers who now live their lives free of their former masters on the coast of the Bleak East. But they are not alone, and we can barely wait to share their Song with you.”
Unfortunately, they—and you—will have to wait a full year for Bleak East to arrive, and that’s where the four DLC releases come into play.
“We want to keep telling the story of Songs of Conquest at a higher pace than only faction expansions would allow,” Toftfelt explained. “So we’re introducing something we call Tales of Conquest in the form of DLC, releasing roughly every quarter. These Tales will move the story of Songs of Conquest forward, as well as expand our gameplay, through story missions following each one of the existing factions.”
The first Tales of Conquest DLC, called Rise Eternal, will focus on the Barony of Loth undead faction: An undead scholar named Kastus Maal will seek vengeance against Arleon baroness who killed him at the Battle of Grey Tor, “and with his guidance the Risen will be more powerful than ever before.” Rise Eternal is planned for release this fall, and will also include new artifacts, set bonuses, and “general improvements to the Risen of Loth” faction, most of which will be added to the base game for free, making them available to all players, even if they don’t purchase the DLC.
After that will come Essence Awakened, focusing on the Arleon, which is expected to be out “around December,” and then two more, based on the Barya and Rana factions, which are slated for sometime in the second half of 2025.
That schedule is vague, and even as far as it goes nothing is carved in stone—Toftfelt warned that “things will always change, and timelines can shift forward and back”—but Lavapotion clearly has big plans for the future: “We just wanted to let you know right away that we plan to support Songs of Conquest for years to come.”
