Demons Souls standard game due August

A standard edition of popular PS3 RPG Demon’s Souls has been confirmed by Namco Bandai, and will hit stores on August 20th.

The publisher released the UK version of the game last month in limited numbers. It was only available as a ‘Black Phantom Edition’ with a CD soundtrack, art book and strategy guide.

Now consumers will be able to purchase the standard edition of Demon’s Souls for an RRP of 34.99.

Namco Bandai made the announcement in its latest game release schedule, which lists ‘Demon’s Souls standard edition’ as a new title.

A spokesperson for Namco Bandai told MCV: "Demon’s Souls Black Phantom edition was treated as a ‘limited edition’ release and the PR and marketing focused on this.

"Demon’s Souls has been a successful launch and we want to continue to supply the market and this is why we will be releasing the standard version of the game with an RRP of 34.99.

"Hardcore fans would have picked up the Black Phantom edition and word of mouth. There’s been superb coverage and incredible review scores and we’ll be continuing to push this game."

The news comes following US publisher Atlus’ announcement that its Demon’s Souls servers will remain switched on until March 2011 at the earliest. It previously promised the servers would operate up to April 2010.