Dark Souls and Dark Souls II Interview

Edge Online is featuring an interview with From Software producer Takeshi Miyazoe about the development of Dark Souls for PC, as well as the improvements they’re making in Dark Souls II for our platform of choice. Hey, at least microtransactions are out:

While Dark Souls II is developed with PC in mind, and with a release just a few weeks after the console version, it’s still a game best played with a controller, though Miyazoe is open to players with other preferences. (The current plan is [to allow] players to choose whether they want to use keyboard and mouse or a controller,) he says. (Both options will be available. Me being a console gamer and not a PC gamer, I would recommend a controller, but if you’re a PC gamer I’m sure you’d have a different opinion.)

Asked whether From Software and Namco ever considered a Wii U port, Miyazoe bluntly replies: (No.) When asked why, he explodes with laughter. (Wii U never came up, and we never doubted that (decision) either,) he says. (It was more of a company decision, so I wasn’t the one that decided this, but I think the audience for the Wii U is a lot different from the audience for Dark Souls.)

Similarly, From have no plans for a Vita version ((It’s not a handheld game, because of the network functionality.)) or for extending the Dark Souls brand in the same free to play direction taken by Soul Calibur, Tekken and Ridge Racer. Again, the notion draws laughter from Miyazoe. (Yeah, right!) he snorts. (Not yet, and not for a while I think. It’s one of our bigger IPs right now, but it’s a new IP, so I think it’s too young to go free-to-play. And with Dark Souls I think it would be hard to monetise in that way. Pay per death? That would be terrible. From Software especially don’t want to allow players to pay for an advantage.