From Software reportedly killing early Dark Souls players

Dark Souls is due out in Japan tomorrow, but as always, some gamers have found a way to snag a copy early. In response, From Software is reportedly taking a unique, and arguably hilarious, step to combat those who are cracking open the game already. And we do mean "combat," because it apparently involves entering the game and killing them personally.

Dark Souls

IncGamers reports that From is sending maxed out characters into the early players' games and killing them off. The evidence so far is only a blurry screenshot originally from Japanese site Esuteru, showing the stats of an assassin: level 145, with level 99 equipment. That will put a hurting on you.

Of course, if retailers are leaking copies early, it would be between difficult and impossible to monitor all of the games and snuff out all players; but if true, it serves as a funny warning to the community, and might just scare players into waiting for the proper time.

Shacknews has contacted Namco Bandai, the US and European publisher of Dark Souls, to confirm the veracity of the report, but has not heard back as of the time of publishing.