Bad Handling of Demon’s Souls PS3 Meant Sony Missed Out on Dark Souls Publishing

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It’s widely known that Sony, especially Shuhei Yoshida, had a somewhat unconventional approach when releasing Demon’s Souls on the PS3. Yoshida admitted he didn’t fully grasp the game initially and even referred to it as “not good”. Despite its later success, which led to the creation of the Dark Souls series and more from FromSoftware, Sony was rejected as a potential publisher for Demon’s Souls due to its initial reception.

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In a conversation on the Sacred Symbols podcast, Yoshida discussed what transpired following Demon’s Souls being named Game of the Year by GameSpot and exceeding expectations in popularity. “FromSoftware was already working on the sequel, but they were disheartened by how PlayStation handled them, so we aimed to collaborate with them again, but they declined the offer.” Sony didn’t localize Demon’s Souls for English-speaking regions; instead, Atlus took care of it in America and Bandai Namco did so across Europe.

As a dedicated gamer, I’ve come to understand that since our shared journey with PS4 exclusive titles like Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the publisher FromSoftware has always been by my side. Sony fans, myself included, have long yearned for the day when they would be able to claim a FromSoftware title as their own, and the wish for a remaster or remake of Bloodborne is a topic that never seems to fade away among hardcore PlayStation enthusiasts.

If Sony had recognized FromSoftware’s potential with Demon’s Souls earlier, they could have collaborated on projects much sooner. As VGC noted, Yoshida shared in an interview with Game Informer over a decade ago that he initially found the game disappointing: “When it was nearly finished, I spent almost two hours playing and after two hours, I was still at the beginning of the game. I said, ‘This is terrible. This is an incredibly poor game.’ So I set it aside.

In 2012, Yoshida stated that Sony had missed an opportunity and failed to recognize the worth of the products they were manufacturing. Fast forward eight years, and Sony re-emerged with a complete remake of Demon’s Souls for the debut of the PS5. We praised it as “PlayStation’s top launch game ever.

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2025-02-19 20:36