MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Namco Bandai has confirmed that the PC version of Dark Souls will be released on August 24th.
The SKU – called Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition – will utilise Microsoft’s Games for Windows Live. And it seems that the move has already proved unpopular with fans.
In fact, a petition to ditch GFWL support has already gained over 10,000 signatures.
GFWL is unpopular, difficult to use, inconvenient, has terrible online support (a key feature in Dark Souls), and is downright unpleasant,” it reads. After anxiously awaiting a PC release for this fantastic game it feels like a real slap in the face hearing Dark Souls will use Games for Windows Live.
We recommend Valve’s Steamworks in place, as this DRM is much easier to use, less intrusive, more reliable, and more accepted among PC gamers. Please reconsider the use of GFWL, or offer the game on both services.
Thank you for taking the effort to port this game, but for a lot of customers it’s Steam or no sale.”
In other news from the series, US publisher Atlus has announced that the US servers for its predecessor Demon’s Souls will be turned off on May 31st.
The single player portion of the game will remain fully playable, but it will bring an end to the multiplayer activities.
"It has been a tremendous honour and privilege for all of our staff at Atlus to have been involved with so innovative and ground breaking an interactive entertainment experience," an Atlus statement said.
"It was also of the utmost importance for us to sustain the game’s online experience as long as possible, even beyond the point at which sales could help to offset the expense. Regrettably, the online servers cannot be sustained forever and now the end draws near.
"Thank you to the unparalleled passion and support of the Demon’s Souls community throughout these last two and a half years.”
