Demon's Souls Was a Disaster, but Miyazaki Saved It

Hidetaka Miyazaki's rise to prominence has been swift and unexpected. The Japanese developer – who now has a slew of critically acclaimed titles under his belt – most recently fronted production on PlayStation 4 exclusive Bloodborne, but his career path is an unusual one. He started out working for US company Oracle, before taking a pay cut to join From Software, where he started out as a coder on the Armored Core series. At the time, there were rumours internally of a "failure" named Demon's Souls.

"Demon's Souls wasn't doing well," he told The Guardian as part of a profile piece. "The project had problems and the team had been unable to create a compelling prototype. But when I heard that it was a fantasy-action role-playing game, I was excited. I figured if I could find a way to take control of the game, I could turn it into anything that I wanted. Best of all, if my ideas failed, nobody would care – it was already a failure."

The rest, of course, is history – but Demon's Souls didn't exactly enjoy an ordinary pathway to success. Despite publishing the title in Japan, Sony decided against bringing it overseas – an error of judgment which Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida regrets to this very day. The game eventually went on to become a cult classic, and spawned the Dark Souls series before paving the way for Bloodborne. The latter's already looking like it's going to be a huge success for all parties, as it's the highest rated PS4 exclusive to date.