by DE5PA1R Tue Dec 11, 2012 3:53 pmThis is a message I sent over to ENB earlier and thought I might open up discussion. Sorry so long.
One question that's been running through my mind is: What is Miyazaki doing, if not working on Dark Souls? He's been intentionally vague when interviews mention his future at FromSoft, and though he's directed 2 extremely popular sleeper hits, he's been moved out of a director's role into that of "supervisor." Questions about his new role linger. He was director of 2 of From's (and Namco's) biggest hits; though new to the
field, after having directed a handful of games he's approaching veteran status; and he is still at From.
There's another creator whose career echoes Miyakazi's in the west: Joss Whedon. He went from doing low-budget TV shows, to high-budget TV shows, then directed exactly 1 movie (the cult classic Firefly) and subsequently directed the Avengers. Now, he's the "supervisor" of Marvel Phase 2, which includes Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2 and other projects, which will lead to his return as director for The Avengers 2. For a lot of stars and movegoers, Joss Whedon is in some ways an ideal creator.
In From's eyes, Miyazaki must represent this ideal. As ENB has pointed out, investment in Demon's Souls and to an extent Dark Souls was minimal. They weren't sure of the potential, and when both games became popular it turned a great profit for the company. I believe this resulted in a new title and perhaps a promotion for Miyazaki to Franchise Supervisor. This begs the question: what is he supervising? The obvious answer is Dark Souls 2. I speculate that an additional obfuscated answer is Demon's Souls 2, and perhaps yet another unrelated Souls title.
I recognize that there is a sizeable amount of speculation here. But, there is some evidence supporting the theory.
First: like I said before, Miyazaki is an ideal director and he's still at From. From wouldn't throw out or "bench" a star player, especially to replace him with someone who may have considerable experience but falls short of Miyazaki's success. They likely wouldn't call him a supervisor of the team, and there wouldn't be co-directors for Dark Souls II. No game developer that takes itself seriously has co-directors without a head honcho actually calling the shots. Supposing From did do something so stupid as bump
Miyazaki down a notch, he would likely have moved to another company or started his own by now.
Second: While Miyazaki has been vague about his next position since the release of Dark Souls, in interviews leading up to its release he spoke very confidently about the franchise and his involvement in it (here). According to my theory, talk about branching out into 2 or more titles began after Dark Souls proved the series was very profitable.
Third: Miyazaki has expressed that part of his team has a lot of interest in mobile/portable gaming (here). Aside from tablets and smartphones, the Vita is the only portable gaming device we can take seriously. The Vita is owned by Sony. Sony owns the rights to Demon's Souls. If From wanted to get into portable gaming, it would almost certainly publish on the Vita. If they were to do so, why not use an established franchise?
The fact that Dark Souls II will not be on the Vita supports this theory - surely From would not ignore an opportunity to turn a profit, get in Sony's good graces and fulfill employee wishes.
Finally, there was talk of Demon's Souls 2 even while Dark Souls, then called "Project Dark," was well underway. You can read that here.
This leads me to the belief that Demon's Souls II is coming soon, perhaps as soon as 6 months after Dark Souls II; that it will come out for the Vita and maybe the PS3; and that Miyazaki will either direct the game or will supervise another director that is separate from the Dark Souls II team. If Namco is pushing From to create a more "accessible" game, and Miyazaki does not want to, this is a solution for both of them. The Dark series will cater to a perhaps more populous casual crowd and the Demon's series will cater to more hardcore gamers.
What do you guys and gals think?
One question that's been running through my mind is: What is Miyazaki doing, if not working on Dark Souls? He's been intentionally vague when interviews mention his future at FromSoft, and though he's directed 2 extremely popular sleeper hits, he's been moved out of a director's role into that of "supervisor." Questions about his new role linger. He was director of 2 of From's (and Namco's) biggest hits; though new to the
field, after having directed a handful of games he's approaching veteran status; and he is still at From.
There's another creator whose career echoes Miyakazi's in the west: Joss Whedon. He went from doing low-budget TV shows, to high-budget TV shows, then directed exactly 1 movie (the cult classic Firefly) and subsequently directed the Avengers. Now, he's the "supervisor" of Marvel Phase 2, which includes Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2 and other projects, which will lead to his return as director for The Avengers 2. For a lot of stars and movegoers, Joss Whedon is in some ways an ideal creator.
In From's eyes, Miyazaki must represent this ideal. As ENB has pointed out, investment in Demon's Souls and to an extent Dark Souls was minimal. They weren't sure of the potential, and when both games became popular it turned a great profit for the company. I believe this resulted in a new title and perhaps a promotion for Miyazaki to Franchise Supervisor. This begs the question: what is he supervising? The obvious answer is Dark Souls 2. I speculate that an additional obfuscated answer is Demon's Souls 2, and perhaps yet another unrelated Souls title.
I recognize that there is a sizeable amount of speculation here. But, there is some evidence supporting the theory.
First: like I said before, Miyazaki is an ideal director and he's still at From. From wouldn't throw out or "bench" a star player, especially to replace him with someone who may have considerable experience but falls short of Miyazaki's success. They likely wouldn't call him a supervisor of the team, and there wouldn't be co-directors for Dark Souls II. No game developer that takes itself seriously has co-directors without a head honcho actually calling the shots. Supposing From did do something so stupid as bump
Miyazaki down a notch, he would likely have moved to another company or started his own by now.
Second: While Miyazaki has been vague about his next position since the release of Dark Souls, in interviews leading up to its release he spoke very confidently about the franchise and his involvement in it (here). According to my theory, talk about branching out into 2 or more titles began after Dark Souls proved the series was very profitable.
Third: Miyazaki has expressed that part of his team has a lot of interest in mobile/portable gaming (here). Aside from tablets and smartphones, the Vita is the only portable gaming device we can take seriously. The Vita is owned by Sony. Sony owns the rights to Demon's Souls. If From wanted to get into portable gaming, it would almost certainly publish on the Vita. If they were to do so, why not use an established franchise?
The fact that Dark Souls II will not be on the Vita supports this theory - surely From would not ignore an opportunity to turn a profit, get in Sony's good graces and fulfill employee wishes.
Finally, there was talk of Demon's Souls 2 even while Dark Souls, then called "Project Dark," was well underway. You can read that here.
This leads me to the belief that Demon's Souls II is coming soon, perhaps as soon as 6 months after Dark Souls II; that it will come out for the Vita and maybe the PS3; and that Miyazaki will either direct the game or will supervise another director that is separate from the Dark Souls II team. If Namco is pushing From to create a more "accessible" game, and Miyazaki does not want to, this is a solution for both of them. The Dark series will cater to a perhaps more populous casual crowd and the Demon's series will cater to more hardcore gamers.
What do you guys and gals think?
Last edited by DE5PA1R on Tue Dec 11, 2012 4:06 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Formatting.)
that would be AWESOME
