Game Dev Says Dark Souls Was "Rushed", Should've Launched In Early Access

24.04.2024 - 22:05 / thegamer.com / Thomas Mahler

Dark Souls is often regarded as one of FromSoftware's best games, but even diehard fans have to admit that the back half is lacking. Between the lava pools filled with copy-and-pasted dragon butts in Lost Izalith and the pitch-black caverns in The Tomb of the Giants, it's clear that the endgame was rushed.

However, No Rest for the Wicked dev and Moon Studios CEO Thomas Mahler has an interesting idea on how that could have been avoided.

"Historically speaking, I think some games would've benefited from early access even before EA was a thing. Imagine [how] Dark Souls 1 would've been in early access - instead of From rushing to ship a boxed product in a somewhat unfinished state, they probably would've been able to look at the second half of that game and still fully form and polish the less polished areas like Lost Izalith," he wrote in a statement on Twitter defending his game launching in early access (as reported by Eurogamer).

Early access has always been somewhat controversial. Even though games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Hades have thrived by using it as a means to build a budding community while fleshing out the rest of the game behind the scenes, many argue that they would much prefer games to launch in full.

"I see some people are still irked about why games like Wicked, Hades 2, Larian's new game, etc. launch into early access even if the studio 'should have the funds to finish the game and release it then'," Mahler said. "But that's looking at a complex problem through a way too simple lens: I think as games become more and more complex and sophisticated, we'll see some form of early access happening more and more often.

Speaking from our own experience, there is just no way we could have ever shipped Wicked 1.0 without being able to see all the data we're seeing now and getting all the feedback from users. And I mean actual users, not a focus testing group."

Mahler also argues that updates and DLC cannot replicate the opportunities early access offers a developer, "Shipping games is always incredibly difficult and stressful and most of the time it means making quite drastic compromises, especially if your product is trying to accomplish something new. And if you don't know that it's okay to bring in certain features and scope after the fact, you'll just end up cutting before you hit the market.

So, even if you dislike the idea of early access: It's one way to allow developers to truly perfect a product over time, so please try to understand that there's value in that."

Right now, early access is only supported on PC and Xbox, but Mahler hopes that'll change in the future, and that PlayStation and Nintendo will both open their storefronts to games launching under this model.