A huge petition from fans helped to bring Dark Souls to the PC. Great news. But then, like a horror movie villain waiting for the most dramatic moment to strike, Games for Windows Live leapt out of the dark and started rubbing its gurning corporate face all over our lovely RPG. Get off it, GfWL, go on, get! Back in the closet with you.
So, in response, a group of players organised another petition asking Namco Bandai to surgically remove all trace of Games for Windows Live from Dark Souls. "GFWL is unpopular, difficult to use, inconvenient, and can be very annoying for many users," says the petition. It has 20,350 signatures.
Namco Bandai have responded to say that the fans have been heard, and hint that the Games for Windows Live setup isn't necessarily a done deal. There may yet be hope.
Namco Bandai publishing producer Daisuke Uchiyama told Edge that the developers chose Games for Windows Live because it's "the established server that we used for the Xbox 360 version" but suggests that "the partnership decision is still ongoing."
"We might have another announcement soon regarding the platform we'll be using," he added.
Head of marketing, Carlson Choi had this to say. "There have been a lot of questions about the digital partner, but we're still in April and the game isn't out until August 24. There is still a lot of time for marketing beats. More information will come - maybe at E3.”
Dark Souls has a smart and unusual online element. In the console version, players can leave each other messages. As you travel through the world, you can look at dead players' blood stains and see their deaths play out as ghostly apparitions, providing hints as to what might lie around the next bend. At high levels players can even jump into each other's game worlds to team up and fight monsters, or murder each other.
It'd be a shame to see these intriguing features marred by sign in problems, connection drops and all the other issues that come with that Games for Windows Live logo.
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