Dark Souls 2 Developer Says No To Turning Dark Souls Into A Franchise

Dark Souls' Hidetaka Miyazaki has no plans to turn Dark Souls into a "franchise" spanning dozens of titles, like the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games.

Speaking in an interview with Edge magazine, the game director said he didn't want that out of Dark Souls. "I [wouldn’t] really care for Dark Souls VIII to come out. That’s not the point," Miyazaki said. "It’s more, ‘What do the fans want?’ We want to stay true to what they expect."

Despite the fact that Dark Souls itself is something of a spiritual sequel to Demon's Souls, which in turn served as a followup to King's Field, each game—successor or no—exists almost independently of its predecessor.

Miyazaki himself has handed the reins of Dark Souls 2 over to other developers at From Software.

"I’m not one to restrict the potential that Dark Souls has by insisting that only I can work on the titles," he said.

"I want new expressions. It’s true that I’m sad about not being involved in the development of Dark Souls 2, because I’ve worked on Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls’ development for the past five years. I really love those two titles; however, maybe this is the time to have new inspiration, so I’m fine about that.

"I’m looking forward to playing Dark Souls II not as part of the development team, but with a little bit of distance. Everybody knows what the core of Dark Souls is – the dev team does, the fans do, the media does – and that will never change."

Dark Souls 2 is planned for release later this year on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Like the first game, it may also see release on the PC.