ESSAYS ON VIDEO GAMES
CHAPTER 20
Timeline of Souls Games

The journey from Miyazaki's hiring to Elden Ring.

FromSoftware games used to be average and lackluster, unknown to the rest of the world. But things changed when they started to release the Souls games, significantly increasing their sales and popularity in the industry.

Under the guidance and supervision of Hidetaka Miyazaki, the Souls games dominated the Action RPG genre, culminating in the company’s win of both the VGA 2019 Game of the Year and the 2019 Best Action/Adventure Game for their latest game, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Discover below how FromSoftware took the journey from being a small fry in the video game industry to one of the best and highly respected, with masterpieces like Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro.

Hidetaka Miyazaki on Game Development Cycle

Miyazaki believes that three years is the best and ideal length of development time for their new games. It helps them to be focused as well as motivated in completing the game while still giving them enough room for implementing new and innovative ideas.

Miyazaki: We probably spent three years per title, at least for our most recent games. We used to have a much faster cycle. However, that was tough. Personally, I feel that three years is enough to keep the idea fresh. It’s best to work on a game when it is still fresh in your mind.

Also, if we don’t have a deadline, it will be hard for me to stop. So whether the cycle is three years or five years, I need a deadline to finish development and release the game. Three years feels like the sweet spot.

Souls Games Timeline

  • 2004 - Hidetaka Miyazaki joins FromSoftware as a game planner for Armored Core: Last Raven
  • 2004 - Miyazaki works as the main planner for Armored Core 4. Midway through the project, he gets promoted to game director
  • 2005 - Miyazaki works as the director of Armored Core for Answer
  • 2005 - Demon’s Souls development begins under a different director
  • 2005 - Miyazaki takes over Demon’s Souls as the director during its prototyping stage
    • Changes the Camera from First-Person to Third-Person perspective
    • Pivots the gameplay towards battles and exploration and away from being a clone of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
  • Oct 9, 2008 - Demon’s Souls official reveal
  • Feb 5, 2009 - Demon’s Souls is released in Japan
    • Earns 39,000 sales in the first week in Japan
    • Fails to meet sales expectations in the early months
  • June 2009 - Dark Souls planning begins
    • Demon’s Souls is still not recognized in Japan or globally
    • Miyazaki and the team just want to make a game to implement their new ideas
  • Oct 6, 2009 - Demon’s Souls is released in North America
    • The game’s popularity explodes, and sales increase
    • FromSoftware starts to be recognized
  • Sep 16, 2010 - Project Dark announced
    • Miyazaki is still in search of a title for the game that will become Dark Souls
  • Feb 2, 2011 – Dark Souls official reveal
  • Jun 7, 2011 – Dark Souls gameplay reveal
  • Sep 22, 2011 – Dark Souls is released
    • Earns 279,567 sales in the first week in Japan
  • Nov 7, 2011 – Dark Souls II planning begins under different directors
  • Jul 9, 2012 – Bloodborne planning begins
    • Sony approaches Miyazaki for a new collaboration
    • The target platform is the not-yet-announced PS4
  • Oct 23, 2012 - DLC Artorias of the Abyss is released
  • Dec 7, 2012 – Dark Souls II official reveal
  • Feb 20, 2013 – PS4 official reveal
  • Apr 10, 2013 – Dark Souls II gameplay reveal
  • Jun 10, 2013 – Dark Souls III planning begins
  • Mar 11, 2014 – Dark Souls II is released
    • Earns 261,147 sales in the first week in Japan
  • May 21, 2014 – Miyazaki becomes FromSoftware president
  • Jun 9, 2014 – Bloodborne official reveal
  • Jul 22, 2014 – DLC Crown of the Sunken King is released
  • Aug 12, 2014 – Bloodborne gameplay reveal
  • Aug 26, 2014 – DLC Crown of the Old Iron King is released
  • Sep 29, 2014 – DLC Crown of the Ivory King is released
  • Mar 24, 2015 – Bloodborne is released
    • Earns 731,407 sales in the first week
  • Apr 7, 2015 - Scholar of the First Sin is released
  • Jun 15, 2015 – Dark Souls III official reveal
  • Aug 4, 2015 – Dark Souls III gameplay reveal
  • Nov 24, 2015 - DLC The Old Hunters is released
  • Dec 8, 2015 – Sekiro planning begins
  • Apr 12, 2016 – Dark Souls III is released
    • Earns 1.13 million in sales in the first week
  • Oct 25, 2016 - DLC Ashes of Ariandel is released
  • Mar 27, 2017 - DLC The Ringed City is released
  • Apr 3, 2017 – Elden Ring planning begins
  • Dec 7, 2017 – Sekiro official reveal
  • May 24, 2018 - Dark Souls: Remastered is released
  • Jun 10, 2018 – Sekiro gameplay reveal
  • Nov 16, 2018 – Miyazaki wins Lifetime Achievement Awards
  • Mar 22, 2019 – Sekiro is released
    • Earns 2 million sales in the first ten days
  • Jun 9, 2019 – Elden Ring official reveal
  • Dec 12, 2019 – Sekiro wins VGA Game of the Year and Best Action/Adventure Game. Nominated as well in:
    • Best Game Direction
    • Best Art Direction
    • Best Audio Design
  • Feb 25, 2022 - Elden Ring is released
    • Earns 12 millions sales in the first three weeks