PlayStation Veteran Explains Why FromSoftware Didn’t Want Sony to Publish Dark Souls

Former Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios CEO Shuhei Yoshida, who left the company after 31 years, explained why Dark Souls was not published by a Japanese platform holder.

Image source: X (IronPineapple_)

Let us recall that Demon’s Souls was developed in collaboration with Sony Japan Studio. During production, it was assumed that Sony would be the international publisher of the game, but it did not work out.

Due to the game’s high difficulty and the negative reaction of early testers, Sony decided not to release Demon’s Souls outside of Japan. The English-language release was handled by Atlus (USA) and Bandai Namco (Europe).

In 2012, Yoshida, who called Demon’s Souls “crap” and “an incredibly bad game” after meeting it in person, admitted that Sony failed to recognize the value of the product it had in its hands.

Image source: Sony Interactive Entertainment

«FromSoftware was already working on a sequel, but they were so disappointed with PlayStation’s attitude [in the Demon’s Souls situation] that they refused to collaborate with us further, even though we wanted to,” Yoshida said on the Sacred Symbols podcast.

Over the years, the resentment faded, and six years after the fiasco with Demon’s Souls, Sony and FromSoftware jointly released the PS4-exclusive gothic action game Bloodborne, which Yoshida was extremely happy about.

«”We have a lot of respect for [FromSoftware CEO Hidetaka Miyazaki] and are happy to be able to work with [the studio] again. Bloodborne is one of his best games,” Yoshida said.