Publisher Atlus announced today the impending shutdown of the North American servers of its action role-playing game Demon’s Souls occurs May 31, 2012 at midnight.
Atlus reassured players that Souls’s single-player component remains unchanged. The company also plans two World Tendency events — large, player-driven changes to enemy difficulty and item availability — on May 1-15 and May 16-31 based on fan voting through its Faithful mailing list.
Atlus Vice President of Sales and Marketing Tim Pivnicny had this to say about the game’s nearly three-year run:
It has been a tremendous honor and privilege for all of our staff at Atlus to have been involved with so innovative and groundbreaking an interactive entertainment experience. We poured our heart and soul into every facet of our involvement with Demon’s Souls, particularly the title’s memorable Deluxe Edition, which served as the only avenue through which to purchase the game’s official strategy guide. It was also of the utmost importance for us to sustain the game’s online experience as long as possible, even beyond the point at which sales could help to offset the expense.
Regrettably, the online servers cannot be sustained forever and now the end draws near. Thank you to the unparalleled passion and support of the Demon’s Souls community throughout these last two and a half years. The online adventure may end soon, but the memory of it — just like that of every boss strategy, every level floor plan, and hidden secret — lives on in the gamers for whom the game was so special. Long live Boletaria!