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Series creator and From Software boss Hidetaka Miyazaki has quashed rumours of a Dark Souls 4.
Dark Souls 3 DLC The Ringed City was released this week, bringing an end to the popular action RPG saga. And it sounds as if that end might be permanent.
As I’ve said from the beginning, there are no further developments planned at the moment, at least,” Miyazaki told Famitsu, as reported by Gematsu, although he didn’t rule out the possibility of future projects sticking close to the Dark Souls formula.
Since I’ve already started work on several [new games], it would be a spoiler if I said something. One thing I can say is that our stance on game production has not changed. In making a new game, we’re not being conscious of making something that resembles Dark Souls, or on the other hand of making something that doesn’t resemble Dark Souls.
Not being concerned about whether it is similar to Dark Souls, I plan on making a game that I want to make now, and that is interesting and worthwhile.”
From’s official stance on the future of the Dark Souls series isn’t as concrete as Miyazaki suggests, however. Back in the summer of 2015, Miyazaki described Dark Souls 3 as "not the final product for the Dark Souls series", describing it instead as a turning point”.
However, by November his stance had hardened, saying: I don’t think it’d be the right choice to continue indefinitely creating Souls and Bloodborne games. I’m considering Dark Souls 3 to be the big closure on the series.
That’s not just limited to me, but From Software and myself together want to aggressively make new things in the future. I believe that From Software has to create new things.”
By the following spring, however, he had started to give himself a little wiggle room, stating: There’s absolutely no plan right now for any sequels, spin-offs or tie-ins [but] I can’t say for certain the possibility is zero per cent.
For example, if a From Software developer come to me five years from now and beg ‘please let me make another Dark Souls‘. Then I will not rule out the possibility to let my subordinates start a new project. [But] what is certain for now is, to me personally Dark Souls is over.
This sentiment was echoed later in the year: I keep referring to the series as a ‘turning point,’ and I’m avoiding use of the word ‘finish,’ since saying it would completely ‘finish’ the series. If someone says they want to make a Dark Souls game using the latest in technology, and if it is sufficiently attractive, then it wouldn’t be fair for me to just finish the series.
I can’t deny the fact that, maybe down the line, I want to go back to the series and make one more game before I retire. I don’t want to be branded a liar if that happens.”
Miyazaki’s position on a possible Dark Souls remaster has been equally as vague.
