Gamers Demand Dark Souls PC Port

[The Wooster]

Gamers Demand Dark Souls PC Port

A petition requesting a PC port of From Software's, profoundly-unforgiving Dark Souls has picked up 30,000 signatures in one day.

The petition [http://petitionbureau.org/DarkSoulsForPC] was sparked by a thread [http://forums.namcobandaigames.eu/showthread.php?p=2330759] on the Namco Bandai forums, following an article on Rock, Paper Shotgun [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/06/the-quest-for-dark-souls-on-pc/]. The petition picked up 7000 signatures in its first seven hours, and has now reached a total of 33,513 at the time of writing.

The petition correctly points out that Dark Souls is a perfect fit for the PC. It would be fair to say Dark Souls [http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Souls-Playstation-3/dp/B004NRN5EO] draws some influence from the savagely-difficult roguelikes of yesteryear.

"A port of this game has a high chance of being extremely successful for From Software and Namco Bandai," reads the petition. "Given the sales of games such as The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and The Witcher, there is a large market for games like this. PC gamers love unforgiving, hardcore games."

Dark Souls, which is a multiplatform title, has thoroughly thrashed its PS3 exclusive predecessor Demons Souls, having sold more copies in its first month of sales than the latter did during its entire lifetime. So there is money to be made in going multiplatform.

The petition also mentions that the more powerful hardware generally found in gaming PC's would alleviate some of the game's notorious performance issues, Blighttown being the most obvious example, and that Steam would be a perfect venue for the game's unique online modes. I imagine the game's thoroughly integrated online features, which are really quite essential to the experience, would be a potent defense against the inevitable piracy issue.

From Software did dabble in PC ports recently with the abysmal, Ninja Gaiden knock-off, Ninja Blade. It was a fairly terrible port, to be sure, but it was also a fairly terrible game to begin with. Dark Souls [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/9171-Dark-Souls-Review] on the other hand, is legitimately brilliant, even if it beats me like a drunken stepdad.


Permalink

 

[Korten12]

As I have stated before, if it has Mods, I won't buy it. If it doesn't, I will buy it again to play it on my laptop.

 

[Absolutionis]

I used to think online petitions like this were meaningless... then Project Rainfall happened...

 

[Kae]

Given that the games online capabilities automatically make it required for it to be online, I don't think there would be much of a problem DRM wise as long as they don't do it Ubisoft style, so I don't see how this could go wrong!
[sub] Other than it being a crappy port, which is possible[/sub]

 

[FoolKiller]

I agree. Steam would be an excellent match with its online element. I'm still struggling to go through Demon's Souls (or however you write that) but I'm looking forward to playing Dark Souls once I'm done dying in the first one.

I do however disagree that Ninja Blade was bad. It wasn't as polished as Ninja Gaiden but there were some very subtle nuances that made it better than people think.

 

[Kopikatsu]

As I have stated before, if it has Mods, I won't buy it. If it doesn't, I will buy it again to play it on my laptop.

wat. If it has mods you won't buy it and if it doesn't you'll buy it again...?

 

[Korten12]

As I have stated before, if it has Mods, I won't buy it. If it doesn't, I will buy it again to play it on my laptop.

wat. If it has mods you won't buy it and if it doesn't you'll buy it again...?

Without going into it again, I will say this. Dark Souls doesn't support it self to mods. It is tightly crafted, the way the online works, to the world. Everything should be kept the way it was original created.

 

[X4NDR]

As I have stated before, if it has Mods, I won't buy it. If it doesn't, I will buy it again to play it on my laptop.

wat. If it has mods you won't buy it and if it doesn't you'll buy it again...?

Without going into it again, I will say this. Dark Souls doesn't support it self to mods. It is tightly crafted, the way the online works, to the world. Everything should be kept the way it was original created.

I don't see how being able to support mods would make the game any worse. I can see your train of thought but mods are completely optional. You can still play the game vanilla. No one's going to force you to download this mod or that.

 

[Korten12]

As I have stated before, if it has Mods, I won't buy it. If it doesn't, I will buy it again to play it on my laptop.

wat. If it has mods you won't buy it and if it doesn't you'll buy it again...?

Without going into it again, I will say this. Dark Souls doesn't support it self to mods. It is tightly crafted, the way the online works, to the world. Everything should be kept the way it was original created.

I don't see how being able to support mods would make the game any worse. I can see your train of thought but mods are completely optional. You can still play the game vanilla. No one's going to force you to download this mod or that.

Because of how the game works. The online doesn't support it. What people fail to understand is that this will BE A PORT. They will not overhaul the whole multiplayer system so then a couple of people could mod.

 

[xitel]

Y'know, as much as I adore this game (self-admitted fanboy, even), I don't think it would fit as well as people think, if only for the fact that it's so well made. It's perfectly fitted to the controller, from the control scheme to gameplay elements to UIs to everything. And sure, you can plug a gamepad into your PC, but that doesn't mean they can just release it without keyboard and mouse support. And if it releases with keyboard and mouse support, there will be people who play it with keyboard and mouse, and whose opinions of it will be permanently soured by that first experience. Either that, or they completely retool the game to fit the keyboard and mouse control scheme, at which point it's basically a different game with the same plot.

[small]Even though I'd buy it and play it all over again if it did get the port >.>[/small]

I don't see how being able to support mods would make the game any worse. I can see your train of thought but mods are completely optional. You can still play the game vanilla. No one's going to force you to download this mod or that.

The problem is the way in which the PvP/Co-Op system works. If you allowed mod support, you'd splinter that entire mechanic irrevocably, because there is zero separation between offline and online play. People can invade you at any time when you're human, and you can summon anyone that has a sign down. But if you introduce mods, you either make it so that people with different mod setups from other people can't play together, in which case you'll get tons of people that can't play with ANYONE, or you make mods useable no matter who you're matched with, which would lead to cheating like hell.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I'd be down with this. After all, my brother took the PS3 and all my games for it to Alberta, so I'd like something like this to happen.

 

[Danceofmasks]

As much as I appreciate the sentiment in the petition, I'm dubious about the multiplayer component.

Though it's often true that "PCs have better hardware," it's also just as often not true.
Laptop doesn't have decent video? Trying to play games on a pentium 4? PC has a million bits of performance crippling bloatware because you didn't look after it?

And so ... anyone who has PC gamed online with any frequency will attest to how someone else with below-spec hardware can cause performance issues with everyone's experience.
While in say, street fighter 4, I'm happy enough to take a loss and then avoid that particular opponent as best I can, it's not a viable thing to do with Dark Souls.

(Also, Skyrim is not hardcore)

 

[LorienvArden]

What a splendit coincidence... Total Halibut just posted a video about the very same petition that got about 385.000 views in two days, and suddenly the petition starts to spike.

link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUXw86Vn8ko&feature=plcp&context=C37cd4ffUDOEgsToPDskLzYp_oIxKYDQArfkvs3l0T

I have a feeling I know why it suddenly got 30.000 votes...

 

[Carnagath]

I used to think online petitions like this were meaningless... then Project Rainfall happened...

Well, they already have a PC-friendly X360 version out and they aim for a niche market anyway, so a stacked petition might weigh more. The game's unique online mechanic might also actually convince people not to pirate it. We'll see.

 

[Korten12]

I have to disagree about Ninja Blade. At least, it being a terrible game (I have no experience with the PC Port). Was it a bit of a rip-off? Oh definitely. Was it as grueling and cruel as Ninja Gaiden? Nope.

But it certainly wasn't terrible. It had its mediocre moments sure but the game was still enjoyable for its wackiness and the gameplay was decent as well. It'll likely be better than Ninja Gaiden 3 at least, because it chooses to indulge in insanity and over-the-top final attacks instead of trying to push in a bunch of humanity bullshit and shitty 1-liner ninja jokes coming from Ryu Hayabusa.


Also, I'd support Dark Souls, but not from Bandai Namco. They haven't impressed me like Atlus has with Demon's Souls, and so far I doubt they'd be able to even handle the PC version of the game. You'd end up having to rely on player-made patches to get the game working.
Though, if it was on the PC, we could finally figure out what the frack the stupid Pendant does for real.

We already do know. It makes it so when you talk to Quelaan you actually can understand her rather then just "..."

 

[Roxor]

If it does get ported to PC operating systems, I hope they port it to all of them, and not just Windows. Yeah, Windows may be widespread, but they're missing out on sales by not catering to the MacOS and Linux userbase. Just look at the Humble Bundle stats. A sizeable chunk of their sales come from Linux users, and the Linux users also tend to pay the most.

 

[Baresark]

As I have stated before, if it has Mods, I won't buy it. If it doesn't, I will buy it again to play it on my laptop.

wat. If it has mods you won't buy it and if it doesn't you'll buy it again...?

Without going into it again, I will say this. Dark Souls doesn't support it self to mods. It is tightly crafted, the way the online works, to the world. Everything should be kept the way it was original created.

I don't see how being able to support mods would make the game any worse. I can see your train of thought but mods are completely optional. You can still play the game vanilla. No one's going to force you to download this mod or that.

Because of how the game works. The online doesn't support it. What people fail to understand is that this will BE A PORT. They will not overhaul the whole multiplayer system so then a couple of people could mod.

No offense, but what you are saying is completely irrelevant to the game. It can't conceivably support mods, but no one has even said anything about modding it or having it support mods. I for one would buy this a second time, no questions asked, if it were to show up on Steam. Mods shouldn't even begin to make or break the idea of a purchase for anyone. They are completely optional, and while the online mechanic has it's positives, there was plenty of times it was more annoying than fun. But, as with the console counterpart, it's optional.