Demon's Souls Message Board

Demon's Souls will not be denied as publisher Atlus announced today that it will support the game's online features for the "foreseeable future." Unlike players in the unforgiving RPG, the servers just refuse to die!

"While it originally seemed as though it would be unfeasible for us to continue to sustain the servers, a number of developments have made it possible for us to continue to invest in and support our fans as they have continued to invest in and support us and Demon's Souls," said Tim Pivnicny, VP of Atlus marketing and sales, we imagine holding a cat o' nine tails. "For all the gamers who have yet to discover the game's amazing online experience, we're happy to say you can still log on and find out why Demon's Souls is still regarded by many as one of the finest games of all time."

The entry fee for electronic sadism is a mere $20 now, as the game is part of the PlayStation 3's "Greatest Hits" collection. The game's online features were intended to end at midnight on May 31, but darkness always finds a way to stay alive.

It looked like next week was going to be the last hurrah for the online component of Demon's Souls. But publisher Atlus has announced that they're going to be keeping the servers online for their hit PS3 hit for as long as they can. More »

Atlus is shutting down the North American servers for Demon's Souls on May 31 at 11:59 p.m. PST. This will not affect the single-player mode, but will prevent players from leaving notes for other players, who appear as ghosts in remote games and all other online activities.

Atlus is holding two World Tendency events, which can alter the difficulty and perks awarded to players in-game, throughout May. Atlus invites all players to sign in for one final hoorah on May 31, Game Informer writes.

Below is a heartfelt statement sent to Game Informer from Atlus VP of sales and marketing Tim Pivnicny:

#demonssouls We've heard (as far back at 2010) Sony admit that it blundered big time by not publishing Demon's Souls in North America. Now we know why they passed. Shuhei Yoshida, Sony Computer Entertainment's head of product development, told Game Informer that he played two hours of the game as it was close to final, and walked away convinced it would be terrible. More »

Nobody expected Demon's Souls to be the hit it was, least of all Sony, the game's publisher in Japan. When Atlus decided to publish the game in North America, it took a risk -- one that paid off. The duty of publishing the sequel, Dark Souls, would then go to Namco Bandai.

Does Sony regret passing on publishing Demon's Souls in North America? Senior VP Shuhei Yoshida thinks so. He told Game Informer the company passed on the game after seeing an earlier build of the game. "What happened with Demon's Souls was until very late in the game's development, we were not able to play the game through. There were framerate issues and the network was not up and running. We underestimated the quality of the game and to be honest, the media in Japan did the same."

But still, even after a few hours with the final product, Yoshida remarked that he just wasn't able to see the value in the game. "For my personal experience with Demon's Souls, when it was close to final I spent close to two hours playing it and after two hours I was still standing at the beginning at the game. I said, 'This is crap. This is an unbelievably bad game.' So I put it aside." In the end, Yoshida admitted Sony "dropped the ball from a publishing standpoint" and was not able to "see the value of the product."

#ps3 As it did last year, the impenetrably difficult Demon's Souls is giving players just a teensy bit of a break between now and New Year's. From now to Jan. 2, Demon's Souls will ease the game's difficulty and unlock "otherwise inaccessible areas and items." More »

#darksouls Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. Two of the nastiest, most unforgiving game of this console generation. So why the hell are they looking so adorable? More »

#darksouls There's a moment early in Demon's Souls, immediately following the game's first major battle, in which the player must sprint from one end of a castle bridge to another. The looming Red Dragon of Boletarian Palace repeatedly strafes that cobblestone walkway with a fiery blast of breath, an attack that will easily decimate a young, inexperienced player. More »

Atlus sent out a little note reminding us all that today marks the second anniversary of the release of Demon's Souls, spiritual predecessor of Dark Souls. In celebration of two years of mind-numbing, controller-snapping difficulty, the publisher has some special World Tendency events lined up for the rest of the month.

Starting today and running through October 17, the in-game world of Demon's Souls will switch to Pure White Tendency, which makes the game (somewhat) less difficult and even opens up certain paths and items. From October 17 through the rest of the month - just in time for Halloween - the world will shift to Pure Black which, you guessed it, makes the game even more difficult (okay, fine, it also opens up different hidden areas too).

To offer up a birthday analogy, it's like Atlus is giving everyone a cake topped with beautiful white icing and a filling made of pure evil.

#yakuza You've survived the perils of Demon's Souls. You're fighting your way through Dark Souls hell. And next year? Next year you'll likely breeze through Yakuza: Dead Souls, the newly-renamed North American version of Yakuza of the End, as it is a completely unrelated product. More »

#darksouls I've played some 80 hours worth of Dark Souls on the PlayStation 3, but I still haven't come to the end of this wonderfully bleak, beautiful and brutal game. There is much for me to uncover before I'm done—and when I play Dark Souls through for a second time. More »

#darksouls Here's the downside to watching any footage of Dark Souls—or even looking at its collector's edition art book. You're going to see some of the game's impressive and imposing enemies. But our latest look at Dark Souls, leading up to the game's release next week, is still a must-see. More »

In an announcement timed suspiciously closely to the release of a totally unrelated game (wink!), Atlus announced that it's going to continue operating the servers for Demon's Souls "into 2012." They had previously only been ensured operation until October of this year.

Thanks to this renewal, players will still be able to leave notes for one another, show up as ghosts in others' games to warn of dangerous conditions, or just become a mean-spirited invader. And with that continued support will come new "Pure White" and "Pure Black" world tendency events for unspecified dates this holiday season.

Atlus PR also just casually drops the fact that Demon's Souls has an MSRP of $19.99, making it the best bargain in From Software's two-title-strong library of hardcore action RPGs.

#demonssouls Last we heard, From Software's Demon's Souls, the PlayStation 3 role-playing game with incredibly innovative online features, would keep its North American servers going until at least October 6, 2011, the game's second birthday. Today, publisher Atlus says it plans to keep the Demon's Souls online party goin' into next year. More »

#darksouls Dark Souls, the spiritual successor to bastard hard Demon's Souls, was released today in Japan. There are reports of it selling out at select shops. There are also reports of game-killing bugs. More »

#darksouls The Demon's Souls story returns in Dark Souls, and so does the game's narrator, and so does her creepy pronunciation of "fog," which sounds like "fug," which Jezebel would tell us is an altogether different thing. Here is the prologue to the game, establishing how the land has once again become a hellhole and why it'll be so much fun saving it. More »

#darksouls The new trailer for Dark Souls comes with a simple warning: Prepare to die. More »

#nsfw Models wearing little more than a thong and thin layer of paint is not unheard of at German video game conventions, but the choice of hardcore action role-playing game Dark Souls as promotion-by-nearly naked woman candidate is sure... surprising. More »

#darksouls The people showcasing From Software's role-playing game Dark Souls—which you've likely heard is something of a challenge—were prone to frequent deaths during a brand-new demonstration of the game. At least its prison break was a breeze and we learned a few new things about the Demon's Souls spiritual sequel. More »

#darksouls This year's Gamescom brings something new from Dark Souls, the dark role-playing game from From Software and Namco Bandai. Not only do we get a closer look at some character creation—the faces are still horrifying—but many of the game's default character classes. More »

#darksouls Dark Souls, the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls, was supposed to be out on September 15. It won't be. More »

#armoredcorev Armored Core V, the latest mecha title from Demon's Souls studio From Software, looks fantastic. Fans can't wait to play it, but they're going to have to. The game's release date is no longer October 20. More »

#soulmachine Dark Souls, the spiritual successor to tough-as-nails Demon's Souls, looks to be wonderfully difficult game—if not more difficult. More »

#e32011 Playing Demon's Souls spiritual sequel Dark Souls at E3 2011 left me with just as many questions as answers. How, exactly, does the beacon fire system work? What does it mean to be "hollowed"? And why won't Namco Bandai answer those questions when asked about this punishing and complex role-playing game? More »

#itsadate Or maybe it's for you, Demon's Souls diehards or those ravenously anticipating the challenge of Dark Souls. What it is, assuredly, is a strong motivator for pre-ordering Dark Souls for the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. More »

#firstlook There's no mistaking it. Dark Souls is as much a Demon's Souls sequel as we're ever going to get, at least any time soon. It's the more beautiful Demon's Souls. It's the game more willing to run wild with its unique brand of twisted dark medieval fantasy. More »

#watchthis Video game masochists, steel yourselves for Dark Souls, the closest thing that you're going to get to a Demon's Souls sequel. A game that will come to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this October, according to this brand new trailer. More »

Radiant Historia for $28? Demon's Souls for $15 and 3D Dot Game Heroes for a measly $13.50? It's either straight up madness, or it's an Atlus-themed deal of the day special on Amazon, available for today only (spoiler: it's the latter).

Perhaps PS2 classic Odin Sphere is more your speed? That's also available for $16. And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention our favorite Atlus game with "Badass Rumble" in the title -- Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble -- is marked down to $28. Just think, if you have 28 or more rumbles in Kenka Bancho, that's only $1 per badass rumble!

[Thanks, Joseph R.]

Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki tells 1Up that Dark Souls will be 1.5 times bigger than its spiritual predecessor Demon's Souls. "It may feel even bigger to the players," he added. More »