Well, it’s the end of an era. And just like the end of any era, it will bring forth many contradicting feelings. Aside from the five stages of grief, we’ll have to go through withdrawal, keep lying to ourselves by replaying the previous games over and over again, and then shun the developers when they’ll start talking about their new titles.
But regardless of what’s going to happen next and to what we may want, the Dark Souls franchise is officially over. At least that’s what Hidetaka Miyazaki, the director of Dark Souls 3, said. Sure, we’ll be getting some DLCs and few more stuff, but the franchise is, for all intents and purposes, finished.
According to From Software, the developers of the signature titles for hardcore gamers everywhere, the franchise ended in March, with the launch of the most recent installment in the series. Aside from the two DLC packs coming this fall, there are no more plans to do anything related to Dark Souls for the next few years.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the franchise is completely dead, although fans of the games might hope so. This is what Miyazaki had to say when confronted about the possibility of the franchise continuing at some point in the future:
There’s absolutely no plan right now for any sequels, spin-offs or tie-ins. But I can’t say for certain the possibility is 0%. For example, if a From Software developer came to me five years from now and begged ‘please let me make another Dark Souls‘, then I would not rule out the possibility to let my subordinates start a new project. What is certain for now is, to me personally Dark Souls is over.
Plus, the company has apparently already started work on another IP. There are no details whatsoever about what that new IP might be, but the development team did want to reassure fans that it will remain true to the company’s previous titles, albeit they most likely won’t share the same universe.
If you’re interested in what Miyazaki plans to do next, he said he’d be very interested in the Armored Core series. He was previously involved with all three games in the series, and would love to be part of a new one, if a new one were to be developed. The new IP probably doesn’t have anything to do with the series, since it’s going to be a new IP, but both could be in development at the same time.
For those not in the know, the Armored Core series is one of the pillars of From Software’s lineup. As you might expect from their name, the games feature fights between huge mech warriors. The last platform on which the games came out was the PlayStation 3, so it has understandably lost a lot of popularity.
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