With the release of the supremely excellent Bloodborne, the PS4 finally has a must-own exclusive killer app. Just how well is it selling in its early days? According to the PlayStation Blog, Bloodborne has sold through to consumers more than 1 million copies, as of April 5. Considering the fact that the PS4 has a ~20 million install base compared to Dark Souls II’s ~150 million, yet Bloodborne sold a similar amount of units that DaS II shipped in its first 3 weeks, From Software has a real success story on their hands.

Even better news comes from the same PlayStation Blog post, which states that patch 1.03 is scheduled for a release later this month. In addition to some small fixes, it will address the biggest problem Bloodborne is currently facing; lengthy load times. Performance optimizations will lead to reduced load screens between both death and lamp teleports, presumably, while another major fix will address the memory leak issue that makes boss battles ridiculously easier.

The biggest takeaway from this story, from what I can gather; the difficult, niche gameplay style of From Software Action JRPG’s is starting to slide towards popularity with Bloodborne. Even with the traditional sword-and-board combat style making way for a more dynamic maneuver and regain system, it’s great to see people take a liking to it. It will be hard to find a more atmospheric game with as excellent a level design as Bloodborne this year, and the fact that death is a constant that more than a million are willing to persevere through brings rewards to game design that doesn’t think lesser of, nor belittle, its audience.

Looking to write about video games? Join us at GameSided! Contact me to apply or if you have any inquiries/tips: daniel.george@fansided.com.