Dark Souls tortures over 1.5-million gamers and makes them love every second of it
Namco Bandai, the publishers behind one of the most challenging console games in existence, Dark Souls, have revealed that the game managed to sell over 1.5-million copies since its release.
The spiritual successor to the original, Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls was lapped up by a huge number of gamers in Japan, where the game debuted at number one on the charts. While it may not have been met with such enthusiasm in the United Kingdom, it still
managed to debut in the top three, which is no mean feat.
The game was hailed by a vast majority of fans and critics alike who praised the game for its challenging gameplay and the rewarding experience it offered to gamers who put in the effort to complete the fiendishly difficult levels.
However, there was a demographic of gamers who just did not understand what the game was about and thus, Dark Souls, much like its predecessor is stuck with being a love it or hate it title.
That will do little to bother its developer or its publisher as the game was designed to challenge and torture players who were looking for something different than the easy to master games which have become a norm of the day.
In fact, the tag line for Dark Souls was ‘Get ready to die’, which pretty much sums up what kind of mindset a gamer needed if he wanted to enjoy the game.
The breakdown of the figures shows that a majority of the sales of the game took place in North America were over a half a million copies were shipped. The official figure stands at, an impressive, 620,000-units sold in North America.
In second place was Europe where the game managed to make its way into 470,000 households and Japan comes in third with 370,000 units sold in that particular region. As for the missing 40,000 units, well according to Namco Bandai those copies were sold in
Asia.
While the game may not be for everyone, it is already being hailed as a contender for the “Game of the Year” by critics and analysts alike. It would be nothing new for the developer of the series as the previous title, Demon’s Souls, received a number of
'Game of the year' accolades in 2009.
Dark Souls may not have reinvented the action role playing game genre, yet it did breathe new life into what was slowly becoming a repetitive and stale branch of gaming with its brilliant combat mechanic, atmospheric soundtrack and rich world.
It will be interesting to see if the game will manage to sell any more copies in the upcoming Christmas period of sales.
Tags: