Demon's Souls will forever go down as one of the most unique action RPGs released in North America. Not only was it brutally difficult, killing player characters with absolutely no remorse and harking back to an era where gamers couldn't just breeze through games, but it also offered an innovative online component. Gamers could leave notes where they had died, warning other players of the dangers that lurked ahead. Additionally, players could see the ghosts of fallen warriors, prompting them to plan ahead instead of rushing into the next area.
Demon's Souls really has been something of a unique experience over the course of the last two years, and its online functionality has played a major part in that. Sadly, Atlus announced that the game's servers would be taken offline next month. In a statement to Game Informer, the North American publisher of Demon's Souls revealed that the servers would officially go down on Thursday, May 31 at 11:59 PM PST.
"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," said Atlus VP of Sales and Marketing Tim Pivnicny. "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. The online adventure may end soon, but the memory of it–just like that of every boss strategy, every level floor plan, and hidden secret–lives on in the gamers for whom the game was so special."
Pivnicny explained that the single-player aspect of the game would remained unchanged, and revealed that two World Tendency events would take place in May. I got Demon's Souls back in December and played a bit of it, being brutally slain a bunch of times in the process. I truly adored the online component and thought it was something really special and impressively unique. It's a shame that the servers are going down here in North America, but we all saw this coming.
Back in September, Atlus stated that the servers for Demon's Souls would run through 2012. Looks like that's not the case anymore. That changes things for me, and it looks like I'll be aiming to finish this beautifully horrifying game sometime within the next two months.
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