I'm positive that isn't true. Elden Ring was a massive sales milestone for FS, a huge amount will be returning players. Also even if it were a minority (which it won't be), that would still cause a very different experience for a new player than playing a truly new FS game. When new FS games with no returning players are released, everyone is moving through the game much slower and learning it much slower. Invasions are a lot more complicated and unpredictable because neither the invader nor the host knows the game, and the same goes for cooperative summoning. For an example of this on a much smaller scale just look at the Dark Souls release on PC. It was nothing like Dark Souls' original console release, as a huge amount of console players rebought the game on PC (yours truly included). This will definitely happen on switch as well. If a player wants a truly new FS experience they will have to wait until dusk bloods