One of the producers at From Software, the developer of Dark Souls, has been speaking about the original, frustration testing, RPG and it's upcoming sequel. At one point in the interview though, he said something you won't hear from the mouth of any other developer out there at the moment: the next game won't have any DLC.
While speaking with Edge, Takeshi Miyazoe said that: “For Dark Souls 2, we don’t even expect any additional downloadable content because we want to deliver a full game, the full experience, to fans who purchase the package from day one.”
While you wouldn't hear this sort of statement from other developers or publishers, it is something you'd hear from the mouths of many an old school PC gamer, who remember the days of expansion packs and bug fix patches. Nowadays it's far more common for big developers to release Day 1 DLC as part of a game's pre-order package, with perhaps as many as ten DLC packs further down the road. One need only look at a game like Borderlands 2, where you can pay more money than the original game cost for all the little extras and add ons.
There's got to be a catch though with this new Dark Souls II right? Maybe there won't be DLC, but it'll be free to play with weapon buys or something? No?
“Buy the package and you’ll get the full experience, and you’ll have as much fun as anybody else. Spending a couple dollars on certain items does not help the experience. So no free-to-play yet,” concluded Miyazoe.
Likewise this is a welcome breath of fresh air. As is the fact that the man also admitted the PC port of the original Dark Souls was poor and said From Software would do a better job this time around – though he still recommends you use a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard.
Kitguru Says: What a nice bit of news. It might be a console port still, but with more effort and no DLC, it feels more like an old school game again. Did you guys like the first Dark Souls?