Dark Souls 3 won't be the final game in the Souls series, game director Hidetaka Miyazaki has clarified.

However, it will be a "turning point" for both the future of the franchise and From Software, with future games potentially set to abandon the series' trademark dark fantasy theme.

Speaking in an E3 presentation attended by VideoGamer.com, Miyazaki explained (translated via Bandai Namco producer Atsuo Yoshimura) that "first of all, this is still not the final product for the Dark Souls series. However, Miyazaki-san believes this will probably be the turning point for the Dark Souls series.

"So first of all, Dark Souls has a really unique world view, so Miyazaki-san believes it is not a good idea to continuously release titles for this series. This will probably be the turning point of From Software as a whole as well, just because this is the last project that From Software has started working on a prototype before Miyazaki-san became the president of the company.

"So it's just a turning point. It is true that it will be a turning point but it's still not the final game for the Dark Souls series."

Miyazaki's comments follow one day after Bandai Namco Europe's vice president of marketing Herve Hoerdt described Dark Souls 3 as the "final episode", suggesting that the series could be due to come to an end.

However, when asked to expand on where he was considering taking Dark Souls in the future, Miyazaki explained (via Yoshimura):

"From Software is well known not only for the fantasy game, but they've been creating the sci-fi mech game Armored Core [and] also some Japanese-style games, like the Ninja games. So Miyazaki-san may introduce new direction in those genres or themes that From Software has worked on in the past in new, future titles.

"However, there are so many things that Miyazaki-san wants to work on, and though he's communicating with us saying, 'I want to do this, I want to do this', but he's actually not communicating anything at this moment, so don't call him a liar even if that isn't happening!"

Dark Souls 3 releases on PS4, Xbox One and PC in early 2016.

Pre-order Dark Souls 3 now on PS4, Xbox One or PC.