Dark Souls Would Be More “Casual” on Mobiles

Namco Bandai wants Dark Souls to go mobile but From Software doesn’t want to compromise its controls.

Dark Souls was easily one of the RPG highlights of the past few years, dropping players into a grimy world of violence, horror and oddly entertaining frustration. It’s an experience that, thus far, has been limited to consoles and PC, something that Namco Bandai doesn’t think will be changing anytime soon. While the publisher has expressed that it’s interested in expanding the franchise’s reach to other platforms, it recently revealed that the game’s developers at From Software aren’t on-board with a Dark Souls made for mobiles.

“We’d like to bring Dark Souls to mobile, but it’s very difficult because the guys at From Software are very much console oriented,” said Alex Adjaj, director of global strategy for mobile at Namco Bandai. “To change their mind about it, it takes quite a while.” The root of From Software’s objection apparently stems from the developer’s dislike of touch controls. “The leads on Dark Souls are saying we don’t want to do mobile because the controls would have to be changed,” explained Adjaj.

That being the case, Adjaj isn’t without hope that a mobile Dark Souls may some day still happen. “[There is] growth in controllers for mobile,” he said. “I think it’s not an impossible case scenario to see a Dark Souls game coming to mobile at some point.” Even then however, he concedes that adjustments to the game’s core mechanics would probably need to be made to accommodate the mobile market. “I think there is a need to redesign the way you reroll in the game to make it a bit more casual, so with shorter sessions,” he said. “When we bring a game to mobile we have to think about everybody, not just a few willing to buy the game.”

Considering how fans have reacted to the idea of a more “accessible” Dark Souls in the past, we can imagine this being a sentiment that wouldn’t go over well. That said, what we’re left curious about is if Namco Bandai and From Software have ever considered portable Dark Souls game. While we can understand the developers not liking the idea of altering the game to fit more limited touch controls, the 3DS and Vita are both equipped with button-sets that are largely comparable to their console counterparts. We’ve reached out to Namco Bandai to ask about this and will let you know if the company offers any further comments.

Source: Digital Spy