Dark Souls Claims a Million Sales in the West

[John Funk]

Dark Souls Claims a Million Sales in the West

Europeans and Americans are gluttons for punishment.

Demon's Souls and its far-less-annoying-to-pronounce sequel Dark Souls are games that, at their hearts, are about brutally beating the player into submission. This merciless attitude rendered Demon's Souls a surprise hit back in 2009, ensuring that a sequel, Dark Souls, would see release on Western shores. Namco Bandai has announced that Dark Souls has become a certifiable hit on its own, breaking the million-sales mark outside of its native Japan.

Specifically, that's 1.19 units sold across Europe and the United States on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms. This number is likely to only go up with the upcoming PC release, given that the popularity of games like Super Meat Boy or I Wanna Be the Guy demonstrates that there is certainly a market on the PC for games that crush players' souls and spirits before grinding them beneath their feet.

These may not be Call of Duty-level numbers, but they're still impressive for a type of game that would have been charitably called "niche" at best. Nor do these numbers include sales in Japan, where the title was self-published by developer From Software and not Namco Bandai.

We may not have lifetime numbers for Dark Souls in Japan, but we do know that it was a hit there as well - it sold almost 300k copies in its bullet hell [http://www.siliconera.com/2011/09/28/this-week-in-sales-dark-souls-sees-demon-sales-ninjas-infiltrate-3ds/] genre, after all - to them, this must be the sort of game they play to relax and unwind.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-08-dark-souls-sells-over-a-million-in-the-west]

Permalink

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I love you Dark Souls, have my babies.

Here's hoping that consoles will get the new content that will be released with the PC version.

 

[Evilsanta]

Fuck yeah!

Even if Dark Souls for PC has GFWL I will still buy it. Because it's Dark Souls and I am a masochist loved it.

As Daystar posted, I hope that the new content also gets released to the console versions.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Good to see this game has done well. It would be sad if such a gem didn't succeed.

 

[hazabaza1]

I could have sworn that I read an article saying that it got over a million pre-orders.
Oh well. Do love me some Dark Souls, just want that extra content on my 360.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

Praise the Sun!

 

[Casual Shinji]

And here I thought the popularity had died down a bit and I could finally wander around in human form for more than 5 minutes without getting my buttocks sliced off by an invading Black Phantom.

Fuuuck...

 

[The Mighty Stove]

And here I thought the popularity had died down a bit and I could finally wander around in human form for more than 5 minutes without getting my buttocks sliced off by an invading Black Phantom.

Fuuuck...

...Never fear! A Sun Bro is here!
Well, that is if you're 10 levels around me. Also if I'm in the same area...and if you notice me .. =(

 

[Casual Shinji]

And here I thought the popularity had died down a bit and I could finally wander around in human form for more than 5 minutes without getting my buttocks sliced off by an invading Black Phantom.

Fuuuck...

...Never fear! A Sun Bro is here!
Well, that is if you're 10 levels around me. Also if I'm in the same area...and if you notice me .. =(

And if I'm on the same server.

Where Demon's Souls was hosted on one server, Dark Souls is hosted on multiple ones, which makes getting together with friends very frustrating and practically impossible.

Let's hope the PC gamers won't have to deal with this.

 

[JasonKaotic]

I was surprised by Dark Souls. I usually hate challenge in games, because most games I've played don't quite know how to handle it, but Dark Souls did it really well and I loved every second of it. Well, except Blighttown. I'm still stuck there. I should fix that soon. But still. I hope they make some more Souls games.
I find people really overexaggerate Dark Souls' difficulty though. It's challenging, but it's not that hard. Once you get the hang of it it's only moderately difficult. Don't know about Demon's Souls though, I haven't played that yet.
Edit: Well, not that hard when disregarding PvP. I play offline because of it, but if you play the game online, you are going to have a very bad time.

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

I love you Dark Souls, have my babies.

Here's hoping that consoles will get the new content that will be released with the PC version.

agreed, this is probably the best made game i have ever played[in terms of fundamentals/ideas/execution]. it truly is innovative and fun, yet difficult. although, quelaags domain is the most bland environment ive been in since the imperial city in oblivion.

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

I was surprised by Dark Souls. I usually hate challenge in games, because most games I've played don't quite know how to handle it, but Dark Souls did it really well and I loved every second of it. Well, except Blighttown. I'm still stuck there. I should fix that soon. But still. I hope they make some more Souls games.
I find people really overexaggerate Dark Souls' difficulty though. It's challenging, but it's not that hard. Once you get the hang of it it's only moderately difficult. Don't know about Demon's Souls though, I haven't played that yet.
Edit: Well, not that hard when disregarding PvP. I play offline because of it, but if you play the game online, you are going to have a very bad time.

blighttown is quite easy, just dont. get. swarmed. if you take it one encounter at a time and avoid the blowdart snipers, youll make it to quelaags domain in about 10 minutes with extra time to explore. just keep an eye out for those bonfires.

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

. Once you get the hang of it it's only moderately difficult. Don't know about Demon's Souls though, I haven't played that yet.
Edit: Well, not that hard when disregarding PvP. I play offline because of it, but if you play the game online, you are going to have a very bad time.

i dont care what others say, demons souls was way harder. it wasnt as balanced [if you didnt balance magic and CQC, you were screwed], the areas sucked, and there was no bonfires. the horror!

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

Where Demon's Souls was hosted on one server, Dark Souls is hosted on multiple ones, which makes getting together with friends very frustrating and practically impossible.

Let's hope the PC gamers won't have to deal with this.

i think they did that so that it would be hard to be with friends. i guess they wanted you to have that sense of loneliness, and/or the mysteriousness of being around someone we didnt know.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Ugh, every news article about this game has to include remarks about the difficulty. Save for a few parts, its not a really hard game. It's a skill that, like any other, you acquire through practice. I breezed through my third character onward, difficulty with the second was because I was trying a no-shield-blocking run (Not including pvp).

So i assume you've forgotten how hard your first playthrough was? Yes it isn't that hard once you figure it out over about 50 hours of gameplay over multiple characters. That's like saying that getting slapped in the face continuously for 50 hours becomes less painful cuz you've gotten used to it.

Now i'm past the "arggh it's hard!" part of DS and onto the "arggh the PVP is so broken!" part of DS XD

I will never forget how hard it was on the first try though... I think some people just forget and go "LOL NOOBS! Can't even beat O&S solo!" and look like massive pricks while doing so.

I'm not directing the "prick" bit at you btw, just so you don't get the wrong idea...

Now, the real question for the PC port extra content is:

Will they add 360 no-scope crossbows into the game?

 

[gigastar]

Edit: Well, not that hard when disregarding PvP. I play offline because of it, but if you play the game online, you are going to have a very bad time.

Having made a couple of forays into PvP recently, i can tell you that all PvPers try to break the game.

Since Dark Souls is a game that encourages combat pragmatism, and because theres no word of honor stopping you, feel free to break the game even harder to beat PvPers. It worked for me, even when i utilise things that were supposedly nerfed.

Of course, you could just stay in your hollowed form, then most PvPers cant touch you.

And here I thought the popularity had died down a bit and I could finally wander around in human form for more than 5 minutes without getting my buttocks sliced off by an invading Black Phantom.

Fuuuck...

No... thats still fairly common.