After 8 Years, we say goodbye…

It’s not every day we get to bid farewell to a title supported for more than 8 years, especially one so foundational to how we play games today.

First, let’s get the tough news out of the way: on February 28, 2018, the servers for Demon’s Souls will be shut down. The game will remain fully playable, but online functionality such as in-game messaging, player death locations, and World Tendency features will stop working.

It’s with mixed emotions we say goodbye to the service. Countless players have enjoyed Demon’s Souls and the functionality it introduced to players when such things were rarer. If you’ve played the game then you understand the feeling of dying multiple times in the span of 10 minutes or dealing with a boss fight so difficult that it took you a week just to figure out the best way to attack. The unforgiving nature of the game has provided countless enjoyable moments of frustration and anger, but also the elation felt from beating something so challenging. This difficulty and grit helped pave the way for even more punishing games such as its spiritual successor Dark Souls, the 2017 hit Nioh, and the landmark PS4 title, Bloodborne.

Some of Our Memories…

We’ve had our fair share of moments playing the game. Here are some of the best memories from our staff:

“Beating double Maneaters for the first time. F*** those guys. It’s also my proudest and most frustrating Platinum trophy to date.” – Nate Harris, Sales Administration Manager “I played Demon’s Souls back in high school and it was one of the first games I had played in a long time where I felt a major sense of accomplishment after tackling a tough boss. I remember beating the Tower Knight and thinking, ‘Man, a boss fight hasn’t made my hands shake like that since I was a little kid.’ Plus, not knowing what was going to come next was always a thrill. You never knew what might be lurking around the corner.” – Jacob Onofrio, Quality Assurance “Blighttown was the not-so-fond memory for me, haha. On top of an already difficult game, I had to worry about poison? And it wasn’t like you could just cure the poison, ‘cuz that area was just nothing but poison and you’ll get re-poisoned immediately. There was no getting around the poison. Did I mention the poison?” – Daryl Le, Quality Assurance “My most memorable experience with Demon’s Souls was listening to Richard’s deluge of profanities while he was testing it, lol.” – Rob Stone, QA Lead “I played like I lived, foolishly rolling off cliffs while trying to dodge skeleton enemies.” – Sara Chan, Product Marketing Specialist “Every boss fight in Demon’s Souls was memorable, not necessarily because they were difficult, but because all of the bosses had a creative way of defeating them. The three moments that stuck out to me the most are when another player invaded me as the Old Monk, Maiden Astrea killing herself and when I found out that the last boss was a gross, bug jello thing. Demon’s Souls is a huge reason why I chose to work at ATLUS.” – Izumi Thorn, Translator

Thank YOU

Thank you to everyone who played Demon’s Souls, and especially to those who still revisit its world from time to time. For those who haven’t played in a while, we invite you to once again visit Boletaria while the servers are still live and celebrate its contributions with us. We’re even going to have some of the newbies in the office play the game live on stream in December, so you, can laugh at their pain. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and our Twitch channel for more details.

-ATLUS