When Namco Bandai’s surprise Dark Souls II announcement cleared my inbox Friday night, my first thought was “Why am I seeing this at the end of the week? At 10:52 p.m. even?” And then: “Oh right, that something something game awards show I never watch.” So Dark Souls II, now definitely happening according to Namco Bandai, though that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Demon’s Souls, a PS3-exclusive, was one of those games that emerged from the void like a thunderclap, relied solely on critical plaudits and word-of-mouth to capture the public’s imagination…and actually pulled off a sales coup. As EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich put it to GameSpot one month after the game’s U.S. release: Demon’s Souls is probably one of the most statistically relevant games released in the gaming world as it helps answer an often asked question: how much would a high quality game sell if it was supported by no mass marketing, released by a little known publisher (no offense to Atlus), and was a new intellectual property. That answer? According to Divnich, “about 30 percent less than the average in the action/RPG genres.” Pretty darned good, in other words. Dark Souls sold even better, according to Namco Bandai, moving about 1.2 million copies in the U.S. and Europe by this spring (it was released in early October 2011). Whither Dark Souls II? Japanese developer FromSoftware’s still behind the wheel, so that’s good news. Also: It’s still being developed for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, which if we assume all the rumormongering’s right about the next Xbox or PlayStation in late 2013, could mean we’ll see this earlier than expected (to get out ahead of all the next-gen hullabaloo). Here’s the who-knows-what-it-means news: Instead of Souls series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki calling the shots, Tomohiro Shibuya is helming development this time. That could either be a mediocre thing or a good one, depending. (Then again, Miyazaki was himself responsible for Armored Core 4, so playing the track record game’s iffy.) The trailer doesn’t tell us much, though certain scenes may suggest![]()
