Demon’s Souls Sequel, Dark Souls, Announced

This week’s upcoming issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu is expected to have the first details on Dark Souls, sequel to the 2009 sleeper hit RPG Demon’s Souls.  Demon’s Souls is an online-focused action RPG from Japanese developer From Software that became notorious (and popular) for its insane level of difficulty.

Though it is the direct follow-up to Demon’s Souls, the Dark Souls’ plot won’t have any connection to the original.  The game will drop Demon’s Souls’ region-based format, opting for a much larger open world and emphasizing exploration as a key gameplay component.  From Software also mentioned expanded character creation and creative new uses of the series’ co-op mode, which lets a player enter a game as either a friend or foe.

Dark Souls will be a PS3 exclusive in Japan, but publisher Namco Bandai plans to release the American version on the 360 as well.

From Famitsu, via 1up

Skyward Sword likely Delayed til Fall

Nintendo conceded today that Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will likely be delayed from “early this year”,  til Fall.  Nintendo had said the game be would be at the beginning of 2011, but with very little shown of the game since E3, a delay seemed likely.

At a recent quarterly financial presentation, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake for the DS is expected to ship before Skyward Sword.  At the 3DS presentation in New York, Nintendo said Zelda would not be released in the console’s extended launch period, which will last from the Console initial release on March 27th through this year’s E3, which ends on June 9th.

Knowing all that, Iwata basically said the game will be released no earlier than mid-june.  AAA titles are almost never released during the summer, so realistically the game has chance of actually hitting shelves  before September.

Via GamesRadar