IRVINE, CALIFORNIA -- MAY 20, 2009 -- Atlus U.S.A., Inc., your shining knights in armor, today announced that they have secured the North American publishing rights for Demon's Souls™, a groundbreaking action RPG experience for PLAYSTATION®3 system. Beautiful, compelling, and unforgiving, Demon's Souls is the hardcore RPG experience PLAYSTATION 3 system owners have been waiting for since the platform's launch.

Revolutionary online features support your adventure like never before, presenting seamless interconnectivity that serves in every instance to enhance the single-player game. Team up with two other players in simultaneous cooperative play, working together to topple some of the game's colossal bosses, or force your way into the games of skilled players and challenge them to PvP battle. Leave hints and clues for those who will follow in your footsteps; either intentionally or through your own inadvertent demise, your bloodstains will allow your successors to view a replay of your death, hinting at how to avoid your gruesome fate. Unprecedented in its depth and subtlety, peerless in its relentlessly challenging gameplay, Demon's Souls is the ultimate action RPG.

Experience the game Eurogamer.net awarded 9 out of 10, hailing it as "absolutely compelling; dark, detailed, unforgiving, creatively cruel," and adding, "you can learn to love Demon's Souls like few other games in the world."

Demon's Souls for PLAYSTATION 3 system is scheduled for North American release in fall 2009.

About Demon's Souls
King Allant the XII, the last king of Boletaria, searched tirelessly to expand his might. The Nexus, a great ice shrine nestled in the mountains, bestowed the power of the souls onto him, bringing prosperity to his kingdom. Still unsated, he returned again to the Nexus, where he foolishly awakened the Old One from its eternal slumber. This long forgotten evil, now wrought upon Boletaria, plunged the realm into darkness and fog. A mighty demon horde poured into the kingdom, devouring the souls of men.

Champions from other realms learned of Boletaria's fate and sought to deliver the kingdom from evil; none would return from the cursed land. Called upon by a mysterious maiden in black, you go forth, the last hope for humanity in a place lost to demons and darkness...

Key Features

• Ultimate hardcore RPG challenge -- In this brutal land, death is inevitable, but not final. Combining the best features of an action game and RPG, you'll slice, smash, shoot, and ensorcel some of the most horrible, vicious enemies ever encountered. Are you strong enough to face the impossible and win?

• Ground-breaking online capabilities -- Network features go far beyond any previous RPG, allowing players to leave hints for each other, replay death scenes, cooperatively revive dead players, or invade another player's game to wreak havoc. Not merely an add-on feature, multiplayer options are vast, and uniquely focused on changing and intensifying the single player experience.

• Freeform and flexible -- The open-ended structure of the game means that there is no single path, but rather a wealth of options. Set your own pace and progress as you like. Build exactly the character you want by creating a detailed avatar, nurturing the right stats, and customizing your skills and equipment.

• You act, the world reacts -- The World Tendency system changes the aggressiveness of monsters and the rewards for killing them based on players' actions. Different events and NPCs may be triggered, as well.

Demon's Souls has not yet been rated by the ESRB.

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About Atlus U.S.A., Inc.
Located in Irvine, California and founded in 1991, Atlus U.S.A., Inc. is renowned for its proud tradition of publishing exceptional role-playing games with strong niche appeal. The Atlus library of critically acclaimed video games includes Odin Sphere, Trauma Center series, and the award-winning Shin Megami Tensei series. For more information, visit http://www.atlus.com.

For breaking news, special promotions, insider info, and more, visit http://www.atlus.com/faithful to join the ranks of the Atlus Faithful!

©2009 SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT INC. Licensed to and published by Atlus U.S.A., Inc.

Atlus produces some solid games, so I'll at least give this one a good look.

Are all Atlus press releases this amusing?

Really excellent game, glad it's being brought to the West.  Wonder why SCEA/SCEE didn't want to publish it?  Hell, the game is already in English.

Lol, I was just rushing over here to post this amazing news! 

I guess I won't be importing it now and will instead wait for the localization. 

Here's a link to the Press Release:  http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3648 

GG, yet again, Atlus!!!!!

I'm guessing it's a case where Sony Computer Entertainment felt it was too much of a risk to bring over themselves. Atlus doesn't worry about that sort of stuff though, and releases stuff regardless of whether they expect it to sell. They've handled a few SCE games in the past too, and they also published Nintendo's Cubivore.

Bless Atlus.

I can't see it going well, but if I can manage to get this working here in the UK I am in.

woooot! I'm starting to really love Atlus. I've been wanting to import this game for soooo long. Now we just need a definitive release date.

That's awesome, I've really been wanting to play this since hearing about it.

Hell yeah, thank you Atlus.

I really don't think they are going to change much in the Asian versions the english and voice over work is pretty damn good. I just started it today and while difficult really enjoy it. Rag dolls are a bit crazy though but its really good looking. And import it for 75 bucks shipped on eBay and play it months in advance get to level 712 and rip some newbies apart with the US release :p

Also think I read on Kotaku earlier that European release is already in the works with Sony this is just the North America and Atlus will handle it. Think they took it down as they were saying they weren't impressed with it or something despite it being raved by the hardcore RPG base.

Great news.

Awesome, I wonder how long it will take to get here though. I was gonna import the game at some point, but if it isn't all that much longer I'll definitely just wait.