From Software is Having Trouble Porting Dark Souls

[Neonit]

...."Because we wanted to get the PC version out as soon as possible..."

oh boy. this wont end well... and let me guess, poor game sales will be blamed on pirates?
ehhh.... i hope it wont be that bad, i really want to see that game on pc, i mean, it sound like an awesome pc title....

i guess time will show how it will end.....

 

[BreakfastMan]

Hey, From, how about, I dunno, delaying it until you fix your fucking game?
Seriously, I love Dark Souls, and Blight Town was shit. There's no reason to release it in the same state on PC. Just wait a bit and get some damn help or something.

Yes there is, unfortunately. That reason? Money. It is quite possible From just does not have the funds to polish the game. It is also quite possible that the extra dosh required to polish it would turn the experiment from a mild profit to a loss. Neither of these is a good thing, especially for a business that is just entering into a competitive market with zero experience. Capitalism really does suck sometimes, huh? :/

 

[The Human Torch]

And Dark Souls' difficulty level claims yet another soul. Or a whole company worth of souls.
Those brave, brave fools...

 

[thethird0611]

So an honest guess is that From doesnt have the money to hire an outside company to port it. Maybe there could be some deal where the DLC can be purchased on the PC to help pay for the port? Huh? Huh?

 

[hazabaza1]

Hey, From, how about, I dunno, delaying it until you fix your fucking game?
Seriously, I love Dark Souls, and Blight Town was shit. There's no reason to release it in the same state on PC. Just wait a bit and get some damn help or something.

Yes there is, unfortunately. That reason? Money. It is quite possible From just does not have the funds to polish the game. It is also quite possible that the extra dosh required to polish it would turn the experiment from a mild profit to a loss. Neither of these is a good thing, especially for a business that is just entering into a competitive market with zero experience. Capitalism really does suck sometimes, huh? :/

Ugh.
I dunno, release the DLC to consoles, and use the profits to polish the PC version?
Dammit capitalism.

 

[Trag Oul]

Why is from even working on this anyway? Bamco wanted a port, bamco wanted gfwl(so they could port the xbox version easier). If they wanted it so bad they should have a)hired a studio specializing in porting or b)let from work on new content(esp if u want to charge me $15 for what could be only ~5hrs of content bamco) release on consoles & then work do a proper port with all the options/bug fixes/steam etc. All this will accomplish is ppl blaming from for bamco's decision(see this topic) & possibly give a bump in sales for double dippers/pc only gamers. This content should have been worked on by the full team & be a proper expansion put out in aug/sept while some other team bamco hired builds a proper pc version for winter/next spring so from can get on with next gen souls(preferably containing more king's field/shadow tower influences & called dread king souls).

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

This dies bound well for From Software. Alot of PC gamers will pick apart buggy games, especially if problems are ported over from consoles which could be solved by virtue of the better hardware PC. This has me worried From Software showed that it is worthwhile to support the PC platform but something like this could turn around and bite them badly.

 

[Evilsanta]

I give them massive kudos for actully saying they are sorry that the game will have the same issues as the console versions.

I will still get it though, because I love Dark Souls and some drop in framerate ain't gonna stop me from kicking Fatboy and Slims asses.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Pfft, the bugs were never that big an issue anyway.

The frame rate drop in Blighttown wasn't that bad.

Annoying, but not a game breaker.

 

[Vivi22]

That's not a good decision on their part.

Let's be honest here. It probably wasn't their decision. I'd bet if they were getting the time and money from the publisher to do it they could probably get this stuff figured out and at least fix some of the issues. Or at the very least, possibly contract a company with some experience porting between consoles and PC to help with the optimization. The decision not to sounds more like publisher mandate to me.

 

[Seydaman]

I'm glad they admitted that they were struggling. I'm still going to get it anyways, a few bugs and a bit of lag never stopped me from enjoying a good game. A lying and greedy developer does.

What he said. I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Seydaman]

Pfft, the bugs were never that big an issue anyway.

The frame rate drop in Blighttown wasn't that bad.

Annoying, but not a game breaker.

Yea, I never had much issue, I just angled the camera a bit and was fine.

 

[Stripes]

I can understand people being disapointed by this but to complian is unfair. The game was never meant for PC in the first place, it only got a port due to a massive campaign by the PC community (nice to see people get proactive but a large part of the sentiment felt like 'console gamers arent good enough to recognise the value of a difficult game, Pc is for the superior gamers and therefore this should be on PC'). With that in mind I feel like it might be a game which is quite difficult to port since they never expected to do so, though if they lack experience then they shouldnt do it themselves its probably more of a cost thing than anything though. Your going to get the game as it is on a console. You shouldnt expect more, you can want a better performing game (believe me I only ever take certain routes because others are nigh unplayable) but shouldnt expect one or bite the hand of off a company which has decided to port it over when many others would ignore you. Plus you are getting the DLC for free, whilst console gamers are left to cover the cost on their own for it, because they want to make nice with you lot. It isnt going to be a technically superior game, though with more content for the same price upon availability its unfairly superior in other aspects, but it wont be a technically inferior one either. Plus PC does not want to shoo away people who put it over consoles in priority (seriously making the DLC free for one and not the other is ridiculous, of course PC gamers dont have a problem with certain platforms recieving priority if its them).

 

[Stripes]

Pfft, the bugs were never that big an issue anyway.

The frame rate drop in Blighttown wasn't that bad.

Annoying, but not a game breaker.

Yea, I never had much issue, I just angled the camera a bit and was fine.

Bugs are different for everyone but it was pretty poor for me and my friends had even worse experiences, they couldnt progress through the front entrance.

 

[Irridium]

While their honesty is refreshing, I'd much rather they take the time to fix issues with the main game instead of add a bunch of content.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I can't say that I see the issue here. Yes, the performance issues are not a good thing but, as the article states, the desire of the ravenous masses was supposed to just be about getting the game on their system of choice. That's what they are getting included extra content that console players did not get originally, and will not get without paying extra.

Having read the article that was the source for this; I think the problem is that From Software is inexperienced with PC development and so they're trying to get their game out on the market. They're not prioritizing optimization with the PC and so the slow down that exists in the console version is going to exist in the PC version. From there it's everyone getting on a high-horse and expecting a lot worse of a port because of the teams lack of experience. The usual nonsense that gets spewed every time a port comes up. What I see is that everyone is probably expecting a Bethesda level of stupidity.

Yeah, that is my read on it as well. They originally said they just wanted to be able to play Dark Souls on the PC and now they are getting it.. but because they are getting it with the same perfomance hiccups as the console versions had it's suddenly not good enough anymore.

 

[archvile93]

They were already going to be insanely hard pressed to meet the august deadline just porting the damn thing over, but then came the outcry about GFWL basically forcing them to redo the net code...yea it wasn't absolutely doomed from the get go.

Well they have no one to blame but themselves for that. Thay really should have known how horrible that thing is. I'd rather have the Flame virus on my computer than that abomination.

OT: Well this is sad, I guess they just don't want to make many sales on the PC. Most people won't put up with a game that barely works, and it will almost certainly be that way, at least far worse than the console versions. Then again, maybe that's the point; make a shit port, so when their next game comes out and people want a PC version they can point to Dark Souls and claim that there's no money in PC games. That way they don't have to do as much work.

 

[Baresark]

Ugh. On the very first interview about this. He said all of the things he restated here. He also simply added that they don't really know anything about PC development. From Software hasn't done any PC games in the past.

It is disappointing that it's not utilizing the significantly increased power of a PC. But getting the same game as the console is not a bad thing. Afterall, lets be honest, this is what people asked for. They wanted the game that everyone else played. They are getting that game. I'm getting that game, and I'm ok with that. Because the game is honestly that great, in my opinion.

As of now, it's not a sloppy lazy port. It's just a port. A port from people who don't know how to deliver the thing we want.

 

[Baresark]

They were already going to be insanely hard pressed to meet the august deadline just porting the damn thing over, but then came the outcry about GFWL basically forcing them to redo the net code...yea it wasn't absolutely doomed from the get go.

Well they have no one to blame but themselves for that. Thay really should have known how horrible that thing is. I'd rather have the Flame virus on my computer than that abomination.

OT: Well this is sad, I guess they just don't want to make many sales on the PC. Most people won't put up with a game that barely works, and it will almost certainly be that way, at least far worse than the console versions. Then again, maybe that's the point; make a shit port, so when their next game comes out and people want a PC version they can point to Dark Souls and claim that there's no money in PC games. That way they don't have to do as much work.

There is no way they could have "known" it was that bad. They don't develop for the PC. How could they know. They are also a Japanese company, the PC market is nonexistent in Japan. I think you are being a bit dramatic by saying you would rather have a virus than GFWL. And if that is the truth, your priorities need to be rearranged.

They have not released any statements saying it will be worse than the console version, so I don't know where you are getting your information. They literally said it will be the same as the console version. There is even a chance that it will be better since it is running on much more powerful hardware.

I do love the conspiracy theory bit at the end though. They want it to fail so no one will bother them anymore. That made me lol.

 

[archvile93]

They were already going to be insanely hard pressed to meet the august deadline just porting the damn thing over, but then came the outcry about GFWL basically forcing them to redo the net code...yea it wasn't absolutely doomed from the get go.

Well they have no one to blame but themselves for that. Thay really should have known how horrible that thing is. I'd rather have the Flame virus on my computer than that abomination.

OT: Well this is sad, I guess they just don't want to make many sales on the PC. Most people won't put up with a game that barely works, and it will almost certainly be that way, at least far worse than the console versions. Then again, maybe that's the point; make a shit port, so when their next game comes out and people want a PC version they can point to Dark Souls and claim that there's no money in PC games. That way they don't have to do as much work.

There is no way they could have "known" it was that bad. They don't develop for the PC. How could they know. They are also a Japanese company, the PC market is nonexistent in Japan. I think you are being a bit dramatic by saying you would rather have a virus than GFWL. And if that is the truth, your priorities need to be rearranged.

They have not released any statements saying it will be worse than the console version, so I don't know where you are getting your information. They literally said it will be the same as the console version. There is even a chance that it will be better since it is running on much more powerful hardware.

I do love the conspiracy theory bit at the end though. They want it to fail so no one will bother them anymore. That made me lol.

Yeah, I wasn't being very serious with that last part, though if it turns out this game has all the stability and performance of a Bethesda game, it will not surprise me even slightly. And I'm certainly not taking their word for it that it will work just as well as the console versions; I've seen companies lie way too many time to believe them, not to mention the inumerable times the PC versions were pathetic cash grabs that only worked if you define "work" as loosely as possible. One example is Saints Row 2, but just look up porting disasters at tvtropes for a much bigger list.