In an interview with Edge Online Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida said two things that completely endeared him to me forever. The first: Sony’s commitment to making the PS4 a games console. The second? A confession of love for Dark Souls.
Of course, the first point is of far greater importance. In a world where it seems that games are becoming marginalised on devices designed to play games, Sony’s commitment to actual video games is strangely refreshing. But in a way it makes sense — every device is constantly trying to be all things to all people, and meet all of our multimedia needs simultaneously — it could pay to create a device that does one thing extremely well.
“Recently there has been a lot of talk about smart TV and devices that can also play games,” he said. “When we first introduced PS4, we wanted to avoid giving the message that it can also do this and can also do that. We wanted to show a focus on just the most important aspect of the console.”
Yoshida then went on to discuss how the PS4 is an attempt to make the process of playing video games a more streamlined, accessible experience. In a way ‘accessible’ is a word that usually represents shallow experiences, but what Yoshida is actually referring to is an attempt at breaking very specific barriers — things like load times, sharing content. Things that, with this current generation, tend to be clumsy and unwieldy.
A lot of it has to do with Sony’s new share button. Which takes us to our second point: Yoshida loves Dark Souls. When he found that he didn’t have enough time to play the game he loved, Yoshida sought out videos of the game online. It was this kind of behaviour that convinced Yoshida that easy sharing of video content should be an essential feature of the PS4.
“I wanted to play Dark Souls all day long, but I couldn’t do that because I was too busy,” he explained. “So instead I would watch people playing it live on Niconico whenever I had some spare time. By doing that, you can find other ways to play the game and read comments by other users. I felt that sharing videos is a really important part of enjoying games.”
Dark Souls. Good taste. Very good taste.
Something About Japan: Shuhei Yoshida on the ‘war for the living room’ [Edge]
Comments
25 responses to “Sony’s Yoshida Wants The PS4 To Focus On Games. More Importanly — He Loves Dark Souls”
Who doesn’t love Dark Souls? People who shouldn’t be trusted, that’s who.
And if there’s one game that would be a shining example of how the share button would be an excellent feature its Dark Souls.
Sooo, CoD players and Dudebros?
😛
can’t trust me
Never did 😀
clever girl
I don’t like Dark Souls.. or perhaps it’s a matter of I don’t ‘get’ Dark Souls… but I’ve tried to play it and I just don’t see why people love it so much. Can someone explain how I should go about ‘getting’ it?
Also, as someone who enjoys sharing gaming videos I like the idea of PS4 sharing videos… had to remain somewhat on topic 🙂
Stick with it.
With the Souls games, there’s a moment. It’s different for everyone. But it’s a moment where everything changes – you switch instantly from “WTF am I doing wasting my time here?” to “OMG give me more, can’t get enough Souls. Best thing evar!”
But it’s usually a tough, visceral battle that you pull through by the skin of your teeth, and then you get a feeling. It’s hard to describe, but it’s kind of like elation, adrenaline and obsession all in a single breath. Like crack.
Unless you have the hopeless PC port and these moments are often shrouded by your mouse slipping onto the second screen. You find yourself flailing around in anger only to die a horrible death every goddamned time.
Yeah… you’d definitely want to play with a controller. Even on PC.
Agreed. I can sort of see its charm but the raving about how amazing it is seems unfounded. Game of the decade? I’d have to disagree. Best way to think of it is what would demon/dark souls be without its hardcore difficulty? The answer is a pretty clumsy and mediocre rpg.
Yeah i think that is my issue with it. It just felt really clumsy, after playing many better games that seemed to have much more fluid controls this was lacking.. Don’t think I’ll bother tbh. Not worth the time atm.
It’s almost a shame that a Dark Souls games on PS4 is likely several years away, given that #2 is coming out for current gen. Possibly a bad example for Yoshida to have mentioned 😛
True, and with no backwards compatibility, it’s not like you could be playing and using the PS4 to capture and share it.
Well there’s always the ‘Prepare to Die edition’ for Dark Souls 2 that you KNOW is going to come. And they’ll take that opportunity to release it on PS4, with slightly better graphics maybe too since it’s apparently a piece of cake to make games on it.
It’s a sad reflection of the direction the industry has been going in recent years when something which should be so bleeding obvious as to not even require mentioning is actually a cause for applause amongst gamers.
I blame the mobile telephonic contraption. Everyone is demanding that it can do more and more so of course other devices are going to assume that’s what people want from theirs as well. And there probably is a large chunk of people who do expect that. Even myself to an extent. I would be sad if the PS4 can’t be used as a media centre like the 3 can. It’s the only device connected to my TV.
Oooh! I do like games! 😀
I have yet to try dark souls. A few of my friends keep talking about and others are saying theyve heard interesting things about it. So, looking forward to trying out.
It’s like getting repeatedly sodomized with a broken bottle.
And I mean that in a good way.
@ Fat shady
The art direction, attention to detail, the amazingly designed and imaginative bosses,the unique areas, the seamless world, the creative enemy design, the challenge and satisfaction of overcoming the seemingly impossible, the exploration, the huge amount of weapons and of course, the gameplay. The combat system is simple yet refined and precise and the sharp. The fact you have so many ways of playing and approaching the world, the thrill of knowing you’ve got the skill to make it to the next bonfire. The fact that the A.I is so well programmed that it presents a very tough but fair challenge. Feeling yourself slowly getting better and better, the mysterious, dark and depressing atmosphere that is also amazing at the same time. The area designs are a thing of beauty, they are all unique and so different from the last. The hidden lore that requires hours of exploration and attention to find.
The fact that the game makes no compromises for the casual gamer or those who don’t have the will to sit down, concentrate and actually learn the mechanics of the game. It’s an RPG and Action Adventure game all in one. It doesn’t hold your hand, the game requires planning and skill to beat.
It is an old school game created for those who have a passion for all of the above 🙂 Not everyone is going to love the setting, the challenge or just the general vibe of the game – whcih is perfectly fine. But for your own sake I advise pushing on for another few hours to see if it “clicks” with you. A lot of people have felt the same way but they press on and realize how amazing the game is. It is considered to rival classics such as Ocarina of Time! Personally, Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls have replaced Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask as my favorites of all time. To me, the game’s are so close to perfect it’s crazy 🙂
I think we must be playing a different game. I just spent 30 minutes attacking the tail of a dragon where after one arrow, it flies off in the same area, does the same roar and sits back in the same spot so I can hit its tail again. After about 40-50 repeats of this, the tail falls off (but the dragon doesn’t seem to mind) and I get a sword.. I am sorry but these repetitive grinds and methods of defeating bosses (there are quite a few similar cases where the recommended method of winning felt like glitching), don’t bring to mind any of the words and praises you used. The combat is slow anduses aan overly harsh stamina drain system and feels like its punishing you just for attacking something. But most importantly Demon and Dark Souls just aren’t fun to play.
Then they need to give up on this playstation move crap and eye toy stuff.
Just because Sony hasn’t mentioned it yet, it doesn’t mean they’re not going for the living room like Microsoft. They’ll still have almost all the same “apps” the Xbox will have.
Both consoles will play games fine.
“I wanted to play Dark Souls all day long, but I couldn’t do that because I was too busy,” he explained. “So instead I would watch people playing it live on Niconico whenever I had some spare time. By doing that, you can find other ways to play the game and read comments by other users. I felt that sharing videos is a really important part of enjoying games.”
I agree in theory, once I’d beaten, platinumed, deciphered, beaten a few more times for good measure, then I started looking into what others were doing. Had I been looking up stuff to find out what I ‘Should’ be building, or where to go next, I, from the bottom of my heart, feel Dark Souls would have been a vastly inferior experience. Granted I couldn’t do this because I did everything before the info was out there (I actually contributed the wiki a fair bit in the first two months), and maybe I would have caved on things had the possibility been there, but as it stands few things, and nothing in the current generation beat the wonder of discovery Dark Souls offers players, discovering Ash Lake without any idea it’s coming? Figuring out how to get into Ariamas by yourself? Simply beating the game the slowest possible way and coming back another time round and figuring out shortcuts, and let’s not get started on some of the cool ways to beat certain bosses and the lore.
I’m glad the videos are out there, they give people who don’t have the time to explore every literal and metaphorical crevice of Souls games a way to see just how well designed the games are, they show alternate ways to do things, faster or more interesting. But at the same time I wish they weren’t such a crux, I wish people didn’t think ‘The game didn’t tell me what to do next exactly, and with pop ups and map markers so I looked it up,’ was good reasoning. There is a reason Dark Souls doesn’t do this, and contrary to popular belief, it’s not to piss you off.
Basically, the possibility of pressing a button on your PS4 pad that brings up a bunch of videos that show you what to do next seems contrary to the very essence of the Souls series to me.
/Cranky old rant. /I miss ENBs similar rants /But i do hope the PS4 focuses on games.
What if I wan’ t record to share but to memories my best moments on best games .Like the first time I’ve played the original Assassin’s creed and FABLE II on Xbox 360 ,my respect to other games, but that was my best moments on this gen that I wished I’ve record it all and the previous gen on PS2 there are many games I can’t listed all .I know it’s hard to have time to play it again but as an example Silent Hill 2 that was the best emotional horror game I’ve played even if I can watch at you tube in 2 hour walk through but this is damn stupid cause I’ve wished I can watch my first time game play and I spend 48 damn hours on it I want to watch at that kind of experience .