“Let strength be granted so the world might be mended.”

November 27, 2017 3:22 PM

Demon's Souls Servers Are Shutting Down, Removing Part Of What Made The Game Great

Seven years on, Demon’s Souls is still shaping the way I think about video games.

“This is Crap”, said Shuhei Yoshida about Demon’s Souls when it was in its infancy. Later, the Souls games would go on to inspire the development of their company’s flagship product, and he named both Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls as two of the greatest games of a generation.

Souls games, previously on the blue:
Demon’s Souls
Dark Souls
Bloodborne

posted by mysticreferee (6 comments total)

Umbasa.
posted by codacorolla at 3:43 PM on November 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Well, maybe they can get lucky and something like Return of Reckoning will happen. Depends on how closely From watches the server codebase. I really wish when stuff like this happens, the companies would just open source the infrastructure stuff.
posted by Samizdata at 2:27 AM on November 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

You have a heart of gold, Demon's Souls. Don't let them take it from you.
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:13 AM on November 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm sure everyone at From would love to keep the servers running indefinitely, except whoever's job it is to actually keep the servers running*. But even if they did, there would certainly be some point at which the number of people actually playing Demon's Souls drops below the number needed for the online stuff to actually work well. I wonder if things are getting there already, and that's why they're shutting things off. At this point, I expect every month fewer PS3s get turned than the previous month.
posted by aubilenon at 3:11 PM on November 28, 2017

That's why the solution is a lavish Demon's Souls HD remaster for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC, surely...
posted by naju at 2:50 PM on December 6, 2017

I'm a little surprised there hasn't already been a Demon's Souls remaster. Apparently Sony was involved in the game's development, so if there ever is an update, I wouldn't get my hopes up about it being cross-platform.

:(
posted by aubilenon at 5:26 PM on December 6, 2017