FromSoftware Passed on PlayStation Publishing Dark Souls Because of How Demon's Souls Was Treated - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 March 2025 / 7,169 Views
FromSoftware in collaboration with Sony Japan Studio developed Demon's Souls, the game that is considered the first Soulslike game. However, FromSoftware ended up not working with PlayStation when it came to their next game, Dark Souls.
Sony ended up not localising Demon's Souls outside of Japan. Atlus published the game in the US and Bandai Namco published it in Europe.
The former President of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida with the Sacred Symbols + podcast revealed PlayStation wanted to work with FromSoftware again, however, the developer decided to go with Bandai Namco with Dark Souls.
"FromSoftware was already working on the sequel, but they were so disappointed with how PlayStation treated them, we wanted to work with them again but they passed on it," said Yoshia (via VideoGamesChronicle).
He added, "We have huge respect for Miyazaki and we were able to work with them again. Bloodborne is one of his best games."
Bloodborne released in March 2015 for the PlayStation 4.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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What was the ill treatment?
Sony refused to localize and publish the game in the west. They thought it was too hard and off putting for western games. Therefore there was less marketing and confidence in the game.
Totally the wrong call.
You can think that with the benefit of hindsight but everyone aroundf for the development of the game thought it was a disaster. It was an infamously troubled development and miyazaki only got the project leadership after everyone else lost confidence in it It took a long time to come together into a form that resembles the one we got and Shu played earlier worse versions. Not to mention that the producer Takeshi Kajii misled the higher ups completely on what kind of game it was. They wanted a game to compete with Oblivion while he sought out FromSoftware to make a spiritual ssuccessor to King's Field. He relied on the superficial similarities of the two series to get away with it for a while.
Then this is no one's fault and just how things worked out. In the end the industry ended up with Bloodborne and Elden Ring as a result of all these actions.
If the game was what it was intended and Sony supported it, would we have got either? Would FromSoft become the biggest developer in the entire world?
Sony and Shuhei fumbled Demon Soul's release majorly. It probably ended up for the best as the Dark Souls games got huge multiplat audiences.
Now Sony will publish all fromsoft future games they said after the partnership and owing half of them now as the largest shareholder.
Miyazaki said if you don't love me at my Demon's Souls, you don't deserve me at my Elden Ring. lol
But now they will publish all their games now after the partnership and largest share holder they said. Namco is out.😁
Damn, didn't know what they had there.
Bloodborne is Miyazaki's Magnum Opus period
Yoshida was the one who hated Demon's Souls, lol.
That was true indeed lol
