Capcom Europe (and I assume in other regions as well) have confirmed their commitment to this years surprisingly successful release of Dragon’s Dogma, and are intending to make new modes and content available in the coming months.
Available free of charge and scheduled for release before the end of the year, Dragon’s Dogma’s million strong community of players will be able to put their skills to the test with the introduction of Speedrun and Hard modes. Speedrun will challenge players to clear the game as quickly as possible with in-game equipments awarded for those who clock specific times; while Hard Mode turns up the difficulty with enemies that are tougher to defeat reward further equipment and hopefully will warrant a second or third non-speed run playthrough of the game.
Looking ahead to 2013, Capcom also mentioned the release of a new installment in the franchise entitled “Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen”, although no further information was provided except that it will be a major expansion to the games universe. It is also assumed that saved data to some extent will be transferable.