The PC version of Dark Souls exists because of the petition to create it, says the game’s producer Daisuke Uchiyama, who’s at E3 talking to journalists. We sat down with him to talk over the details; including why they picked Games For Windows Live, and how PC gamers who want to get the best from Dark Souls should use a joypad.

The petition for a PC version made the devs “very, very happy,” says Daisuke. “When we first started to decide to do the PC version, we spoke about adding new content. Being able to take the console version and add new content to it is entirely down to the petition.” In fact, the dev team got a bit carried away: Prepare To Die contains three additional venues, four additional boss characters as well as additional weapons and armor.”

But the scale of the petition took the developers by surprise, and they made the decision to get the game out as quickly as possible. “Our experience with Microsoft’s servers was something that was very beneficial for the development team. Because we wanted to provide it as soon as possible, we went with Games for Windows Live.”

The PC version also brings additional headaches; Dark Souls is tuned to near perfection around the use of a joypad. “Because it’s so finely tuned, we’d like PC players to use the gamepad. We’ll have minimal keyboard and mouse support.”

Even so, Daisuke has a huge amount of respect for hardcore PC gamers, who he says “get deep down into the actual gameplay, whatever game that might be. We’re really looking forward to see how PC gamers will feel when they play the game more in-depth.”