Dark Souls and Bloodborne creator Hidetaka Miyazaki has told IGN in a recent interview that Dark Souls III began development without him; having been asked by From Software’s then President to join the team after production hit a few “speed bumps.”
When the idea for Dark Souls 3 came to me it was from From’s President. Not the idea itself, but the president asked me to get on the Dark Souls 3 project for which the prototyping was hitting some speed bumps.
Miyazaki was offered the position while still working on Bloodborne, but accepted the job after reminiscing about his work on past games in the series and including some new features that he says “weren’t possible” with Bloodborne.
I was reminiscing of the things I could have done in Dark Souls that weren’t possible in Bloodborne, and was reminded of the beauty of fantasy. It was the perfect time to return to Dark Souls… and inject some new ideas.
However, if you’re concerned that the lack of Miyazaki’s involvement in the early stages of Dark Souls III‘s development will have an impact on the overall experience, don’t be – the game was built rebuilt from the ground up after he joined the team.
It was quite early. It’s basically been built from the ground up. So there’s no sense of having something that was made which was then touched up.
Dark Souls III is due to release in Japan on March 24, 2016 for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with a Western release currently slated for April 12 for the same platforms.
