Everything You Need to Know About Bloodborne in 2023: Patch, Remaster, Remake, PC Port, PS5 Update, and More

Published: 29 Jan 2023 2:49 PM +00:00 Updated: 29 Jan 2023 5:06 PM +00:00

So, you like Bloodborne. Us too! What's that? You want a Bloodborne remaster? Or, at least, a PS5 update? You aren't alone there, either. But as the years have gone by, well, the rumors and leaks and speculation have gone wild, and each new piece of news seems to invalidate the previous piece of news. Accordingly, the question becomes: where does Bloodborne stand in 2023? Are the dreams of Bloodborne fans getting answered soon, or is Bloodborne a totally dead IP that nobody should expect anything more from?

Not to worry, we've done the work, and we're here to tell you everything you need to know about Bloodborne in 2023.

FromSoftware and Bloodborne

Quite famously, FromSoft exec and game director Hidetaka Miyazaki was once asked about his favorite game he'd worked on, and unsurprisingly, his answer was none other than Bloodborne. This, naturally, has begged the question: why hasn't Bloodborne gotten any love or attention since its release, then?

Without a PS5 patch, official confirmation of a PC port, or formal news on a remake or remaster, Bloodborne sure doesn't feel like anybody at FromSoftware loves it that much. So, many folks out there have tried to answer the question of why it feels like that, even usually reliable industry insiders. However, there's a lot of bad information out there.

For one, famed industry insider Jeff Grub, in 2022, talked about the possibility of a Bloodborne update or remaster. His basic claim was that Sony couldn't possibly outsource any work on such a project to another studio because of how complicated Bloodborne's actual code was to work with, and since FromSoftware was hard at work on Elden Ring and other projects, Grub was not expecting anything in the way of Bloodborne support.

The thing is that this just isn't true. For example, the biggest feature gamers want out of Bloodborne is 60FPS support, considering the game's always been locked to an unstable 30FPS. And this is already possible for some thanks to the modding community. Modder Lance McDonald, just as an individual unaffiliated with FromSoftware, managed to write his own patch for Bloodborne that uncaps its framerate, and if you've got a modded PS4 or a dev unit PS5 that can run unsigned code, you can try it out for yourself.

The point here is that if a sole modder can bring Bloodborne's most requested feature to the game, well, it's clearly not so complicated a beast that none other than FromSoftware could possibly implement such a feature on a grander scale. This claim from Grub falls in line with a lot of speculation about FromSoftware simply being too busy to go back to Bloodborne.

However, this is also just not the case. FromSoftware would not have to be involved with a Bloodborne patch, remaster, remake, or anything else, because Sony is the one that actually owns Bloodborne as an IP. The case was the same with Demon's Souls that Sony decided to have Bluepoint games remake. These games are Sony's property, and Sony ultimately controls their destinies.

It is true, though, that there is little evidence FromSoftware is working on anything Bloodborne related, which is why there have been years of speculation that another studio, perhaps Bluepoint, will take up the Bloodborne mantle. But are any of those rumors solid?

Bluepoint and Bloodborne

Bluepoint Games is the studio responsible for the Demon's Souls remake, and shortly after that released, Sony purchased Bluepoint outright. Considering this studio is now a first-party studio with actual experience rehabilitating old FromSoftware code, well, it's only natural there's been tons of speculation this studio is working on Bloodborne next.

However, the actual evidence for this is much more complicated. Reports, for years, have claimed that Bluepoint is working on an original game, which would make sense given that the studio finally has direct backing from Sony and can enjoy the resources and stability that Sony can provide such that the studio can take some risks and work on a totally new IP.

But, reports have also suggested Bluepoint's original game will be about the size of Miles Morales, meaning that it's not designed to be an especially huge, AAA game the likes of a God of War. Simultaneously, reports have claimed that Bluepoint is also working on another remake, which would also make sense given that's where Bluepoint has found most of its success.

Accordingly, many have wondered what a new remake from Bluepoint would be of, and many think that the most likely candidate there is Bloodborne. Unfortunately, there's just no concrete evidence either way. We don't know for certain that Bluepoint is working on a remake, and even if we are to believe the rumors the studio is doing a remake, well, there isn't any direct evidence that this remake will be of Bloodborne.

Colin Moriarty, former IGN writer and industry insider, made comments that he'd heard from sources that Bluepoint was, in fact, working on a Bloodborne project. Sounds like good news, right? Not so fast, because in 2022, Moriarty walked those claims back a bit, hearing from another source that Bluepoint was not actually working on Bloodborne.

There's also speculation that Bluepoint isn't necessarily working on an original game but rather original content, and such content could be a Demon's Souls sequel or Bloodborne sequel, but these rumors are even shakier than the rest we've talked about above.

However you slice it, it's certainly possible that Bluepoint has a hand in Bloodborne content coming later on, but there's not enough evidence out there, right now, to say that with any meaningful level of certainty.

Bloodborne on PC

There are a couple of core pieces of speculation about a future Bloodborne release. Some are thinking about a patch coming to PS5, some are thinking about a remake or remaster coming to PS5, and some are imagining a PC port. The idea of a Bloodborne PC port has only gained traction over the years thanks to Sony's ongoing commitment to bring many formerly-exclusive games to PC, like Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War, Uncharted, and more.

Nixxes Software, a company known most recently for porting Sony games to PC, was purchased by Sony for that specific purpose, i.e. to bring Sony games to PC starting with 2022's release of Spider-Man and Miles Morales on PC. Accordingly, there's been much speculation that Nixxes' next project is going to Bloodborne.

However, once again, there's no direct evidence for this. Nixxes could well be hard at work on a Bloodborne PC port, which can seem like a legitimate claim when you remember rumors of Bloodborne's PC port going through rounds of playtesting and nearing completion years ago, but those rumors predate Sony's acquisition of Nixxes.

What's more is that Nixxes working on a PC port of Bloodborne, and just a PC port, feels unlikely considering PlayStation fans themselves are clamoring for a Bloodborne patch, remake, or, really, anything, so just releasing a PC port of the game might not make a lot of sense. It's true that in collaboration with Bluepoint the two studios could be working on Bloodborne content for both PC and PS5, but there's even less evidence for such a claim.

What's more is that Sony's tendency when it comes to PC ports seems to be for older games that have already sold as much as they could sell on PlayStation. This is to say that if Sony brought Bloodborne to PC, there are likely many gamers out there who may well skip out on buying a PS5 altogether and simply out to play Bloodborne on PC, even if a PS5 version comes out.

And, unfortunately, the point of bringing PlayStation games to PC has never been to cannibalize actual PlayStation sales and rather to do smart things with older games that aren't particularly in demand at the moment. This is why something like Ghost of Tsushima feels to many like a better candidate for a PC port, considering it already had a PS4 release and PS5 update.

The Current State of Bloodborne Speculation

The fact of the matter here is that it's certainly possible any number of studios, from Bluepoint to FromSoftware to Nixxes to anybody else, could be working on Bloodborne content as we speak, and considering how much fans want to see Bloodborne get some attention and for how long they've wanted that, the question becomes what's going with Bloodborne?

For one, Sony has demonstrated time and time again that it's a company willing to listen to gamers and give attention to older IPs. Just look at Demon's Souls, a smaller, more niche FromSoftware game than Bloodborne that Sony greenlit a whole remake for over 10 years after its release. The point here is that Sony isn't one to leave money on the table when it comes to older games.

However, a sequel to Bloodborne has just never seemed to be in the cards. That's a project that FromSoftware would likely have to take on themselves, and one where there's no precedent for, and FromSoftware is, indeed, hard at work on other things, like Elden Ring. Even a remake has always seemed like something of an unlikely outcome considering that Bloodborne was only released in 2015, making it not particularly dated and a better fit for a remaster.

What does seem a lot more reasonable, though, is a PS5 update for Bloodborne, a remaster, or a PC port of the game. And if simply patching Bloodborne to run at 60FPS is so easy, why hasn't there been an update on PS5 or even a remaster on PS5? What's going on? Well, there isn't a concrete, direct answer to that question, but there is certainly speculation.

First off, a Bloodborne patch, at this point, doesn't seem likely simply because folks are definitely willing out there to spend good money on even a Bloodborne remaster. Furthermore, a PC port would inevitably dig into PlayStation sales of Bloodborne, so if one is coming, it's almost certainly coming after a PlayStation release, as far as the speculation goes.

So, then, if a patch isn't likely, nor is a remake or sequel, and if a remaster would likely have to come before a PC port, when is a remaster expected and when might there be a chance at playing Bloodborne on PC?

Bloodborne Remaster and PC Port Release Date

The biggest reason, in terms of speculation, why we haven't seen a Bloodborne remaster just yet comes down to competition.

Demon's Souls was a great fit for a remake, and remaking an old game for the launch of a new console is a lot more compelling than remaking a newer game or even simply remastering it, so naturally, it made sense not to launch a Bloodborne remaster around the time of the Demon's Souls launch.

After all, Sony definitely did not want gamers to have to choose between Demon's Souls and Bloodborne, because the brand could simply wait and release a Bloodborne remaster later on and everyone who wanted it before would likely still want it later.

But then, the release of Elden Ring quickly approached, and there was a similar situation: why release a Bloodborne remaster in competition with another full-fledged FromSoftware game? Why cannibalize sales by having these two games compete for a gamer's dollar? The answer is, again, simple: better to just wait to release a Bloodborne remaster.

In the here and now, Elden Ring came out last year, although there is much speculation that we'll see Elden Ring DLC. So, we're inching closer to a time where a Bloodborne remaster won't have much in the way of direct competition. Accordingly, within the next year or two (so, 2025 at the latest) a Bloodborne remaster seems most likely to launch on PS5.

Then, a year or so after a remaster launches on PS5 might well be a good time to expect a PC port, so perhaps 2025 or 2026 at the earliest. Of course, this entire article is about speculation and rumor, so nothing's been confirmed just yet, but we'd be shocked if something Bloodborne-related doesn't happen eventually...

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