Demon's Souls to be taken off PS3 servers

Just this week ATLUS announced that Demon Souls (the game that catapulted their name from just "the guys who published Persona" to a full fledged, awesome game publisher) will be closing it's PS3 online doors.


Created by From Software, the prequel to Dark Souls, Demon's Souls is a game that denied classical genre classification. A brilliant game that had aspects of RPG character creation, strategy game planning, action game reflexes, and old school gaming difficulty.  I mean, really old school.  The game is so difficult I had to stop myself from throwing my controller on numerous occasions.  One thing that really kept me going though, were the interactions I got from fellow players.

Nothing felt cooler than non-verbally celebrating a tough battle together.

The game was excellent at making the player feel alone.  Very alone.  You had to survive on wits, instinct, and a little smart planning if you wanted to keep playing.  But, if you so chose, there were little messages written on the ground from players who had been there before you, and you could also see visions of the last breaths and actions of others before their inevitable deaths.  These slight interactions with others not only showed you that others were playing and having the same difficulties you were, but also showed you that others were dying all around you.  Occasionally you could be visited by other players (some to help you, some to hunt you down), but these were only brief non-chatting interactions. In the end, when you have to remember where all the traps were and how to take down that monstrous boss, you were alone.


Well, players of the game should really start getting used to that feeling. Since being released in October of 2009 the game's PS3 online servers will go offline for good on May 31st, at midnight.   This does not kill the game, and you can still enjoy it.  Just not to it's fullest extent. The game will get punishingly hard for those who need the help from the messages on the ground and ghost glimpses, but I'm sure that you will be able to find solace from those on the internet.


So why did this have to happen?
Well, ATLUS is not a giant publisher akin to the likes of Activision or EA.  Hosting a server that houses hundreds of thousands of daily interactions is not cheap.  The answer is simply this:  They ran out of money to host it. Coming directly from the press release: 

"It was also of the utmost importance for us to sustain the game's online experience as long as possible, even beyond the point at which sales could help to offset the expense.  Regrettably, the online servers cannot be sustained forever and now the end draws near."

With a sequel that they are focusing on, Dark Souls, and other game desires, they couldn't keep it open any longer.  There are petitions open and demands for a kickstarter to be, ahem, started, but I doubt that these will work.
In December of 2010 the admins of ATLUS' forums were talking about how overjoyed they were that they could afford an extension of the life of their servers for the game, a mere year after the game was released. 
So can someone else help out?  I doubt that other publishers will be willing to fund the bill for one of their competitors.  Maybe someone that directly benefited from the game's release?  Maybe Sony, the home of the exclusive title? Well, after the recent news that Sony has revised their loss projections to make out for a $6.4 billion dollar loss, I really don't think that they can foot that bill either.

'Sorry Demon's Souls fans, we're kinda in a hole here too!'

So what can you as a player do?  Enjoy the product to it's fullest while you can, and continue to show support for ATLUS to make them a bigger company.  It was their creative genius that brought us the game, lets show them that we love them for it.  Buy their other games new, be active on their game's forums, and support them.  
You have till midnight on May 31st to get your slaying on, get to it!

"It has been a tremendous honor and privilege for all of our staff at ATLUS to have been involved with so innovative and groundbreaking an interactive entertainment experience.  We poured our heart and soul into every facet of our involvement with Demon's Souls..."

 -ATLUS Development Team (taken from official press release)

*sniff*

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Summer Drought: Downloadable edition

I've already gone over the physical disc-based games that are coming out this summer, and even though they are few in number, they look high in quality.  Downloadable fans rejoice! There are many games that will be clamoring for your harddrive space releasing this summer as well. XBLA, PSN and Wii-ware games have a special place in my gaming system.  Small games that deliver a large experience while costing a meager sum.  Simply put, I love them.  Here are some highlights of this summer's byte-size goodies:

April 13th:  Fez (XBLA)

A bizzare and captivating 2D/3D hybrid game, it has the old school look and feel of a platformer, mixed with dimension bending powers of a puzzler to give you... well, probably a headache until you get used to it. Check out the trailer for an idea of how this works, as its really hard to describe on paper without sounding like a crazy person...

April 17th: House of the Dead 4 (PSN)
Have Playstation Move and dissapointed with the games out?  Well, you've got one light-shooter gem coming your way.  Yes, its a remake of the old arcade game, but for a rather sparse line up for Move, anyone with the add on for Playstation should have this one on their list.





April 18th: Trials Evolution (XBLA)
The first game was an amazing physics-based biking game that was met with rave critical reviews.  Released in 2009, its been a while since my tires got some mud on 'em, and with multiplayer tracks to actually race one another (finally), this game will get my motor revvin' for sure!

April 25th: Bloodforge (XBLA)
Have a bad day?  Want to eviscerate some poor saps who get in your way?  Click on Bloodforge to start it up and feel the blood-rage leave your body by stabbing, slicing, dicing, and decapitating your way through a handful of levels built to test your action button combos.  The real star of this game is the cinematic camera angles that give you some sweet views of the blood shed.  Very cool.  Almost too cool looking to believe its a downloadable game!




May 1st: Awesomenauts (PSN, XBLA)

An arena brawler that will take you back to arcade days, this game features 6 different characters, all with special abilities, that will rip and shred their way through waves and waves of enemies.  All the characters are ridiculous, and the animation looks right at home for a downloadable title.  Reminds me much of a certain Castle Crashers game, and I know I had too much fun with that game for it to be even legal.  This one is for sure on my watch list, and my couch can't wait for my friends and I to sit on it again.


May 9th: Minecraft (XBLA)
I haven't dug into the craze that is Minecraft yet, but if you are on a computer that can do simple processing, you probably have run into a minecraft phase or two.  If not, well you're in luck, as it's coming to Xbox360!  Featuring all the same addictive elements that the PC one has, you now can share your creations with all of your Xbox Live friends, and even participate in some co-op online or split screen!  That way, you can introduce your friends to this blockbuster and be there every step of the way to help them figure out what they are doing.

May 15th: Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Ep 2 (PSN, XBLA)
Sonic fans! Are you here?! Anywhere...?  Oh here we are.  Episode 2 for the fourth iteration of the series is finally releasing!  Yes, I know, you hardcore fans had some issues with some things about episode 1, but you guys are very hard to please! Its been more than two years in development, so hopefully they took care of those issues!  Guess we'll find out 5/15...

July: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD (PSN, XBLA)
Well, Tony Hawk must've heard some cries of pain from all of his Ride-based games.  He's realizing the success that he had in video games came primarily from the amazingness that THPS 1 and 2 brought to the table, and therefore he's re-releasing them in HD for this summer.  A mixture of levels taken from the first two games, as well as their soundtracks (!!!), but rebuilt from the ground up in modern engines, it looks promising that what wasn't broken, wont be "fixed".

Summer: Foosball 2012 (PSN)
Yup.  This is not a joke.  This is getting released.  Supports Move too.
Really all I have to say about...
Ugh...
A videogame involving a literal foosball table...

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