When it first hit North American shores back in October of 2009, Demon's Souls became a sleeper hit. But all good things must come to an end unfortunately, and Atlus will be pulling the plug on the game's multiplayer servers next month.

Demon's Souls multiplayer will go offline on May 31st, at exactly 11:59 pm PM PST. This means players will no longer be able to to summon others into their game, or invade another's session. Players will also be unable to place or read hints around the environment. The single player portion will remain unaffected, though considering most of Demon's Souls innovations stemmed from its online capabilities, the game won't exactly be the same.

As well, in May, Atlus will hold two World Tendency events, which will make the game harder or easier - depending on which options fans vote for. These sessions will run from May 1-15th, and May 16th - 31st. Seeing as Atlus was only the game's North American publisher, we assume European and Japanese players will remain unaffected. This mean it's possible those of you with a European copy can keep playing after the shutdown, as one would assume it connects to the European servers instead.

Atlus also sent Game Informer the following statement:

On October 6, 2009, North American gamers’ expectations of what an online roleplaying experience could be were forever changed.  With Demon’s Souls, gamers received a title of breathtaking scope and vision, a project built on experimental cooperative and competitive multiplayer concepts, offering users both direct and indirect methods of communication and interaction.  Elements of every connected player’s single player world carried into the worlds of others, sometimes as nothing more than an echo or afterimage, and other times in the form of an alliance or invasion.  With countless hazards to memorize and plan for spread across each of the game’s sprawling dozen-plus worlds, the ability for players to leave hints–or, potentially, deceptions–and to view the final moments of other adventurers’ lives, created an unprecedented form of RPG crowd-sourcing that remains revolutionary to this day.

When subtle interactions were insufficient assistance, players could call across dimensions for assistance, pulling the weakened spirit forms of other adventurers–unable to communicate using conventional voice chat in order to preserve the game’s intense atmosphere–into their worlds to help them defeat the game’s unforgettable boss monsters.  Other less altruistic spirit form users could invade the world of living adventurers and try to revive themselves by quite literally stealing that life from another.  All of these online elements, all of the ways in which gamers would interact with each other, served to enhance and complement the core game and were designed so as to neither diminish nor distract from the experience and thrill of simply playing the game.

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!

Having bought the Demon's Souls Collector's Edition on launch day, it's kind of embarrasing to admit I was never able to beat the game, even though the Collector's Edition came with a stratedgy guide. Despite only getting a few levels in, From Software's creation was a fantastic game, and we really have to thank Atlus for bringing it over, especially since Sony didn't think too highly of it. I know what I'll be doing next month, and who knows, maybe I'll see some of your phantoms run by.

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Follow me on Twitter @AnthonyMole.

Source: Game Informer