THE ORB HAS SPOKEN: The Crowd Crowns FromSoftware the Dark Sovereign of Studio Style, and Larian Is Left Rolling Dice in the Mist

Draw the velvet curtain, my darlings, and lean close to the glass. A bonfire flickers in the fog, a ring glints in the ashes, and the cards are unanimous: the studio whose style haunts players most in 2026 is FromSoftware. Ominous, yes. Final? The orb is fogging up a little, and the numbers are about to tell us why.

First, what the bones say. According to the record of Game of the Year winners, FromSoftware is the only developer to win the top prize at The Game Awards more than once, first for Elden Ring in 2022 and then for its expansion Shadow of the Erdtree in 2024. The same list shows Larian Studios took the crown in 2023 with Baldur's Gate 3, while Nintendo EPD has seven nominations and one win. FromSoftware isn't resting on its relics either: its Wikipedia page notes that The Duskbloods, a multiplayer soulslike directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, was announced in April 2025 for Nintendo's new console. The research brief is clear that none of these sources rank studios by player appeal, so trophies are omens, not verdicts.

So the crowd held its own séance. On Morfi's opinion markets, where people put real money behind their convictions, FromSoftware leads at 41% consensus and Larian Studios trails at 23%. Also hovering in the smoke: 4 other sides. That's 20 unique traders and $395,557 on the table, and trading opened less than a day ago. The ink is still wet, and the crowd's conviction lines up with the trophy cabinet pretty closely: the two studios with the most recent Game of the Year wins are the two at the top.

It also confirms what my colleague Chef Basil Brawl smelled in the kitchen when he reported that FromSoftware grabbed the head chef's hat as Larian rolled the dice. The same rivalry and the same ranking, only this time the plates have turned to tarot cards.

Now my own reading, and this is opinion, read from the bottom of a cold teacup. FromSoftware deserves to win because its style is a dare. It hands you a sword and says nothing, then lets the world tell its story through crumbling architecture and item descriptions. Larian gives you a whole tabletop of choices, and I adore it for that, but dread lasts longer than a good conversation with a vampire. That said, any studio that wins on silence should remember that the crowd can go quiet on it too. A narrow lead at dawn has a habit of turning into a tie by midnight.

What to watch as the moon wanes: according to Wikipedia's 2026 release list, CD Projekt Red's remastered Wild Hunt is arriving on several platforms with critical scores in the nineties, which could stir the cauldron for the Witcher faithful. Then there's The Duskbloods, which might cement FromSoftware's reign or crack it. The cards are dealt but the hand isn't over, so join the market on Morfi and put your coin where your prophecy is.