Dark Souls 2 won’t repeat PC mistakes, dodges DLC

From Software, the development team behind the excellent game Dark Souls, has not planned to include any DLC (downloadable content) for the game’s sequel, Dark Souls 2.

Speaking to Edge Online, From Software developer and Dark Souls 2 producer Takeshi Miyazoe said that the team was working hard on the sequel to their much-loved debut RPG. It appears they have been taking note of the waves made by other game studios that have announced plans for day-one DLC for many of their titles.

“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,” said Miyazoe. “We did do additional content for Dark Souls, but generally downloadable content for Dark Souls II is not really being considered.”

“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.”

Dark Souls 2 screenshot

Miyazoe also apologised for the poor quality of the Dark Souls port to PC and explained that the developer didn’t have enough experience making a game for the PC market, noting that designing a game for a platform that had completely different hardware requirements and input options would have put the team doing the port under considerable strain.

“Our main priority was to get the game onto the PC as fast as possible, because people wanted it on the PC,” Miyazoe said. “The PC market in Japan is so minimal that originally there were no plans to make it on the PC, but we had a strong petition from the North American and European fans.”

“We did know there were PC-specific features like key-mapping and use of the mouse and keyboard, high resolution and higher frame rate, stuff like that. It’s not that we ignored it, but it would have taken too much time for us to implement it, test it and get it up to the level people expected,” he added.

Dark Souls 2 screenshot

Miyazoe also put to rest concerns that Dark Souls 2 would be another port from consoles and delayed to make room for the developers to launch on console first to make the game’s publisher, Namco Bandai, some money.

“Dark Souls II we are developing on PC from the beginning. We realise [now] what PC games typically require, and I can assure you that the PC version of Dark Souls II will be a good PC experience for PC gamers.”

Dark Souls 2 is currently in development by From Software and will be available on PC (Windows), PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and is scheduled for a March 2014 release. From Software has no plans to port the game to Playstation 4 or the Xbox One just yet.