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Dark Souls claimed nearly 2.4 million sales worldwide
2,367,000 people made good on their preparations to die in Dark Souls. As livedoor reports, From Software announced the latest global sales figures for the 2011 deathtrap at a recent press conference. Around half a million purchases came from Japan, the studio revealed, with the other 1.85 million or so made up from North America and Europe.Copies which included the 'Artorios of the Abyss' DLC released last year comprised just under 700,000 sales. As ShackNews reports, according to Namco Bandai VP Carlson Choi the PC version represents "over 300,000" of that figure.While Demon's Souls proved a surprise hit when Atlus brought it to North America, Dark Souls' sales performance may explain why its follow-up warrants a '2' tacked onto it rather than a new moniker. Even if it should be called Dragon's Souls...
Greater priority on PC for Dark Souls, sequel director says
Dark Souls 2 director Yui Tanimura has admitted that From Software botched the job porting Dark Souls to the PC. "A lot of it was not very well done, sort of half-assed," Tanimura told Shacknews through his translator, Tak Miyazoe."Yes, we will definitely put more priority on the PC," Tanimura said regarding the upcoming sequel. "Last time, we started working on PC after the console version was complete. This time, because we are considering the PC from the beginning, you can be sure there will be more care put into PC development."The PC port of Dark Souls was the result of an impassioned internet petition that caught the attention of Namco Bandai. The first two games in the series, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, were both directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki. Namco Bandai announced Miyazaki would not direct Dark Souls 2, a "company decision" in favor of dual directors Yui Tanimura and Tomohiro Shibuya.%Gallery-185482%
Rumor: Dark Souls 2 screens show what's going to kill you
All Games Beta has posted leaked screenshots and a trailer it says are from Dark Souls 2. See 12 minutes of gameplay right here.
Demon's Souls pounces on PlayStation Plus today
The malignant majesty of Demon's Souls becomes free to North American PlayStation Plus members in today's PSN update. The servers for the From Software game are staying online for the foreseeable future, so there's no reason to pass on a PS3 game we described as a "leather-clad mistress" in our 2009 review - unless, perhaps... you're scared?Less sadistic Plus entries coming this month include Zombie Tycoon 2, which heads to PS3 and Vita via PSN on April 30, Malicious and Labyrinth Legends for PS3, and PSP game Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny for Vita. There are no PS Plus ETAs for those last three.As ever, new stuff coming in pushes old stuff back out. If you want to grab Spec Ops: The Line from PS Plus, today's your last chance to do so. Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition dragon punches out on April 9, while Anomaly: Warzone Earth flees on April 16.Finally, today's PSN update brings discounts to The Walking Dead, Rainbow Moon, and the Söldner-X series, including the first season of Telltale's zombified adventure for $14.99, a price that drops to $10.49 with Plus. For all those deals, check out the PlayStation Blog.
Getting Dark Souls all wrong
This is Making Time, a column about the games we've always wanted to play, and the games we've always wanted to play again. When Dark Souls first launched in October 2011, I picked it up immediately. Though that statement may seem to be tied to my love of the game's spiritual predecessor, the truth is I've never touched Demon's Souls. It was the rampant fan excitement for a new entry in From Software's action-RPG that drew me in. But Dark Souls didn't resonate with me.It was a combination of elements that made it easy for me to shelve my copy: the continuous discussion of its incredible difficulty and the "if you don't like it, you don't get it" attitude from fanatics. I never planned to play Dark Souls again.Early this morning, I wrapped up my fifth hour of the game on Xbox 360, after putting three-plus hours in on the (only worth playing with fan-made fixes) PC version. Dark Souls' hooks are firmly embedded under my skin.%Gallery-130900%
Armored Core: Verdict Day decides on Xbox 360 and PS3 this fall
Armored Core: Verdict Day, the latest entry in From Software's military mech series, will be released in North America on Xbox 360 and PS3 this fall, Namco Bandai has announced. After some confusion with the source URL (it says "summer") we confirmed with Namco Bandai direct that fall is indeed the launch window.Verdict Day puts humanity in a war over valuable natural resources, with a persistent multiplayer mode made up of territories where each faction battles for control. Factions are broken up into squads, in which up to 20 players can join up and play together – if you're playing alone or offline, AI will fill in the gaps.Operator mode gets beefed up in Verdict Day – the tactical top-down game mode where you act as battle overseer now lets Operators see the cockpit views of individual pilots, mark targets and set rally points in real-time. Verdict Day also checks for an Armored Core 5 save file and lets you transfer your custom mech.%Gallery-179578%
Dark Souls director sad to leave series, but wants to move on to something 'warmer'
Demon's Souls and Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki is upset about leaving the series, he tells Edge. Dark Souls 2 has been passed to a new pair of directors, Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, a move that was "a company decision" according to Namco Bandai producer Takeshi Miyazoe, and was essentially done to inject the series with some fresh blood (large stains of it, no doubt). Despite his feelings for the Souls series, Miyazaki admits, "Sometimes I'd like to work on a warmer game – not necessarily casual, but warmer in terms of the atmosphere and the environment." Given how pervasively gloomy the series is, we can understand how being mired in it every day might be draining. Furthermore, while Miyazaki is "sad about not being involved" with Dark Souls 2, he says, "Maybe this is the time to have new inspiration, so I'm fine about that." For his part, he says that he is eager to play Dark Souls 2 "with a little bit of distance." The development team, fans and the press all understand "what the core of Dark Souls is," he says, and that core "will never change." Finally, while he'd rather not see "Dark Souls 8," he adds that the important thing is serving the series' fans. "We want to stay true to what they expect."
Demon's Souls PSN petrifying Europeans on January 23
The PlayStation Network version of Demon's Souls is bringing death and despair to Europe on January 23, Namco Bandai tells us. That means our friends across the ocean must wait a little longer for From Software's downloadable dose of role-playing desolation, following yesterday's news of it coming to North America's PSN this coming Tuesday.Namco says the game's European servers are staying online, so be sure to look out for messages telling you it's safe ahead when in fact there's a big, fat soul-loving spider who missed both breakfast and lunch and isn't really dealing with it well.
Even this Dark Souls 2 concept art is difficult
Fans of From Software's Demon's Souls and Dark Souls games sure like a challenge. While Dark Souls 2 will be "more understandable," we're expecting that it will retain the difficulty curve set by the previous games.Since we really don't know what to make of the recent pieces of concept art for Dark Souls 2 seen in the gallery below, we figure it's just another way the series is beating our brains up. %Gallery-174006%
Dark Souls 2 will be 'more understandable,' says director
The upcoming Dark Souls 2 won't be quite as obtuse as its predecessor, Tomohiro Shibuya told Edge. Shibuya will direct the game alongside Yui Tanimura, taking the reins from Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki. Shibuya promises a less ambiguous experience, something that will be friendlier to new players. Noting that he personally prefers to be direct, he added that the game "will be more straightforward and more understandable."For experienced Demon's Souls and Dark Souls players, that statement might be more terrifying than the games themselves. After all, part of the appeal of the games is their mystery and the reward of overcoming their crushing difficulty. That said, all we have to go on right now is a single trailer for Dark Souls 2, and it's as grim as we'd expect from the series, so we're not panicking just yet. Here's hoping the game's new directors can lower the bar of entry without snuffing out what made the series special in the first place.Miyazaki himself made comments regarding Dark Souls' difficulty earlier this year in an interview with Metro. In the original interview, Miyazaki seemed to ponder the possibility of creating an easier difficulty mode for Dark Souls in order to make it more accessible. Namco later claimed that his comments were mistranslated.
Dark Souls 2 announcement trailer has us preparing to die all over again
This trailer paints a fate that's unsurprisingly bleak, but the news of a follow-up to From Software's grueling 2011 gem is anything but. We don't know when, but we do know Dark Souls 2 will lead to broken controllers and mangled keyboards on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
Dark Souls 2 screens are a little shy
Okay, so maybe we wanted to believe that there are adult Shy Guys in Dark Souls 2. At least, that's what we thought when viewing the announcement trailer during the 2012 VGAs a few nights ago. That's our mistake, but when you look at these screens from said trailer, can you really blame us?Not much is known about Dark Souls 2, besides From Software's unswerving commitment to making the game incredibly difficult. We can say with certainty that Shy Guys first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 2. Dark Souls 2 has the number two in it as well. "Shy Guy" is also two words. None of that is a coincidence, right? %Gallery-172917%
Dark Souls is $27 this weekend on Steam
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition is the weekend deal on Steam, cutting the masochistic experience by 33 percent to $26.79. You may be used to Steam deals dropping game prices deeper, but consider the price punishment an appetizer for what's to come.The million seller franchise earned a spot in our Joystiq top ten for 2011 for being the Stockholm syndrome experience of the year.%Gallery-152982%
Dark Souls PC on sale for $19.90 on Amazon
PC download codes for Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition are on sale for $19.90 on Amazon. The code includes the full version of the game along with the Artorias of the Abyss expansion.The Artorias of the Abyss DLC was recently made available on Xbox Live and PSN for $15. The Prepare to Die Edition PC code requires a Steam account for activation.
Dark Souls DLC lands on PSN/XBLM October 24 in Europe [update: October 23 for NA]
The Dark Souls 'Artorias of the Abyss' downloadable content is coming to Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network on October 24 in Europe and Australasia. The DLC contains the additional content of the Prepare to Die edition recently released on PC. It will cost 1200 MSP on XBLM, and $14.99 on PSN.For those who view downloads on the same level of an invading player robbing them of all their souls, a Prepare to Die retail edition for consoles is headed to Europe and Australasia on October 26. There remains no word on it being brought to North America.Update: We have an update on the Dark Souls Facebook page, albeit a confusingly worded one. When deciphered, it seems to indicate the Artorias of the Abyss DLC is coming to North America on October 23. It reads: DARK SOULS : Artorias of The Abyss Dark Souls®: Prepare to Die Edition™ is coming to consoles and will be available for purchase via digital download on both the PlayStation®Network and Xbox LIVE® on : October 23, 2012 in North America October 24, 2012 in Europe Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss will include sprawling new maps and environments, new boss characters, enemies, non-player characters (NPCs), an arsenal of new weapons and armor and additional challenging content for unrelenting heroes to face as they return to the deadly world of Lordran. Darkness born in the forests of Oolacile is expanding and engulfing the kingdom and all of its people. Only the strongest players will be able to stop the encroaching darkness. Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss will include an online match-making feature allowing console gamers to showcase their skills against other Dark Souls players around the world. October 24 matches up with the European date for the DLC. Given that, we think the update means to say the additional content from the Prepare to Die edition i.e. the Artorias DLC is coming to XBLM and PSN on October 23 in North America. Of course, we can't discount this being another nefarious Dark Souls puzzle designed to lull us into a false sense of security. So we're off to find a bonfire. Don't wait up. %Gallery-165957%
Namco: Dark Souls developer's 'easy mode' comments were mistranslated
After comments from Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki spread across the web like a Great Chaos Fireball, Namco appears to be doing some damage control. In an interview with Metro, Miyazaki's comments – as they were originally translated – hinted at the possibility of creating an easier difficulty mode for the notoriously tough Dark Souls, or at least doing a better job of helping players understand "the messages behind our difficult games."Namco contacted Metro saying that Miyazaki's quotes were mistranslated, and in fact he made no mention of decreasing the difficulty at all. According to Namco, what he actually said was, "I am thinking about how to make everyone complete the game while maintaining the current difficulty and carefully send all gamers the messages behind it." This, says Namco, was the "true intention" behind Miyazaki's statement.For its part, Metro admits (as it did in the original interview article) that the translation "wasn't very good." Still, the outlet states that "the sentence in question always seemed pretty unambiguous."
Boxed Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition heads to consoles October 26 in Europe, Australasia
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition will be released as a boxed product for consoles, Namco Bandai has announced. Launched (and modded!) this week on PC, the Prepare to Die Edition features all of the original Dark Souls content along with a new expansion called "Artorias of the Abyss" and brand new PVP matchmaking. This new console edition will launch in Europe and Australasia on October 26. For those who already own Dark Souls on console, the new content is slated for a downloadable release as well.We've contacted Namco Bandai to see if the retail edition is headed to North America as well.
Dark Souls PC's resolution issues fixed by modder in 23 minutes
A fan-made mod appears to have fixed Dark Souls: Prepare to Die's resolution issues, dramatically improving the game's graphics in the process. What's more, the modder was able to complete the fix within 23 minutes of the game's release.There had been concern leading up to the PC version of Dark Souls, with From Software acknowledging that Prepare to Die would likely release without expected optimization. Producer Daisuke Uchi had told Digital Spy earlier this month that the original game's frame-rate issues would not be fully fixed, while Eurogamer raised alarms over Prepare to Die appearing to be locked at 1024x768 resolution.With all that in mind, NeoGAF user Durante spent the week before the game's release preparing a 'dll framework' to fix the problem. When the game launched earlier today, he only needed 23 minutes to finalize the code required to render it at a higher resolution. What's most surprising is how much better Prepare to Die now looks, with Durante's mod seemingly curing the unmodded version of its blurriness. The before and after screenshots are striking.While fans are delighted with the fix, the speed of one modder's work to improve Prepare to Die's resolution so dramatically forces questions to be raised. We've approached Namco Bandai for comment but the publisher declined to say anything at this time.You can download Durante's fix here.
Silver Lining: Steel Battalion Heavy Armor and humanity within the mech
'Silver Lining' is a column from freelancer Taylor Cocke dedicated to highlighting moments of real potential in less than perfect games. This week he examines From Software's Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor. An interesting thing happened to me within the first hours of Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor. I started to actually care about the computer controlled soldiers confined to the chassis of my hulking Vertical Tank. Natch and Parker's voices would have been out of place as bad 80s stereotypes. But as the pair reloaded our tank's weapons, spewed tactical advice in my ear, and repaired our VT from encounters, I came to know them as more than chatty computer characters. They were compatriots.And then I'd aim down the sites to see enemy tanks, and do my absolute best to keep myself and my team alive – a difficult feat due to Steel Battalion's atrocious Kinect controls. My enemies were mechanical monsters, sent to destroy everything that I held dear. In early cinematics, they were shown as faceless killing machines, slaughtering men, women, and children indiscriminately.In war, one of the most powerful motivational techniques is dehumanizing your enemy. Dehumanization can also be accomplished through the use of technology. Aiming down a long-range rifle's night vision scope doesn't exactly focus on the human elements at the end of the crosshairs. Drone strikes do away with even having to look at the person being shot at. And in Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, the player is literally separated from enemy combatants by walls of steel. There is no defining human factor on the battlefield, only the game of war.%Gallery-158612%
Dark Souls fans can 'Prepare to Die' on Steam and consoles
The additional content in the PC version of Dark Souls will be released as DLC for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions "this winter," IGN reports. The expansion, called "Artorias of the Abyss," will cost $15 through the consoles' respective marketplaces.There's also good news for those planning to buy the PC "Prepare to Die Edition" in August. Namco Bandai informed IGN that the game will be released not just on Games for Windows Live, but on Steam as well, negating the need for any further petitioning.[Thanks, Logan!]
