George R.R. Martin hasn’t played ‘Elden Ring’ because he’s too busy writing ‘Winds of Winter’

Despite being involved in the creation of the game’s lore, George R.R. Martin has yet to play Elden Ring – and says he’s too busy working on his next Game of Thrones book.

• READ MORE: How ‘Elden Ring’’s sound designer and ‘Metal Gear”s composer created the best game soundtrack since ‘Streets of Rage’

Martin’s comments were made during an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (as spotted by GamesRadar), where he revealed that he has to stay away from games while he’s working, after previously losing his free time to games like Railroad Tycoon and Homeworld.

Martin suggested that playing Elden Ring might distract him from writing The Winds of Winter, the long-anticipated next entry to his A Song of Ice and Fire series, which was adapted into HBO’s Game of Thrones.

“I have not played it, because people seem to want this Winds of Winter book,” joked Martin.

“I did play video games a long, long time ago, I played games like Railroad Tycoon, Master of Orion, and Homeworld and I would get sucked into it,” shared Martin. “Weeks, months would go by and I’d be sitting there in my red flannel bathrobe just saying ‘one more game, one more game.’ I can’t, I gotta go cold turkey on this, this is gonna kill me here.”

These games seem to have had a real impression on Martin, given that he name-dropped them in his blog in the leadup to the release of Elden Ring. In that blog, Martin described his work on Elden Ring as being “just a bit of worldbuilding.” However, this doesn’t mean that Martin isn’t proud of his involvement in the game, as he has said in the past that he was “honoured” to be involved with the game.

Despite underplaying his role on Elden Ring, fans have since speculated that he named the game’s main bosses using only his own initials – as each of the game’s demigods’ names starts with G, R or M. This is something Martin himself has denied, noting that “Elden Ring is exciting enough, no need to make stuff up,” adding “Really, why would I have to hide my name inside the game? My name is right there on the game, as one of the creators.”

In other gaming news, a former Call of Duty producer has criticised the skill-based matchmaking system that’s present in Call of Duty and other multiplayer games.