While the soulslike genre is hugely popular today, inspiring titans like God of War and even Star Wars, its beginnings were mired in doubt.
Sony didn't have faith in Demon's Souls, refusing to publish it in the West due to its difficulty and the negative reception from early playtests. However, when Sony saw the buzz it was getting at launch — after Atlus and Bandai Namco stepped up to publish the game in the US and Europe — its tune changed.
As reported by VGC, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida revealed on the Sacred Symbols podcast that Sony wanted to make Demon's Souls 2 with FromSoftware. But the studio turned down the idea and instead teamed up with Bandai Namco for a spiritual successor, Dark Souls.
"FromSoftware was already working on the sequel, but they were so disappointed with how PlayStation treated them. We wanted to work with them again but they passed on it," Yoshida explained.
Dark Souls was an even bigger success, so much so that it became synonymous with difficulty ('X is the Dark Souls of Y'). Going multiplatform certainly helped, with Bandai Namco publishing the game across PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Despite this success, FromSoftware didn't hold...
