From Software reportedly killing early Dark Souls players

From Software is reportedly sending maxed out characters into Dark Souls to brutally convince early players to wait until the game comes out officially.

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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.

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.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 21, 2011 2:00 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, From Software reportedly killing early Dark Souls players.

    From Software is reportedly sending maxed out characters into Dark Souls to brutally convince early players to wait until the game comes out officially.

    • reply
      September 21, 2011 2:01 PM

      if this is confirmed: LOL. At least it's an interesting way to combat breaking street dates.

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        September 21, 2011 3:19 PM

        how does this combat breaking the street date? They are not killing store owners....

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      September 21, 2011 2:02 PM

      hah this is classic

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      September 21, 2011 2:03 PM

      it's going to be so hard to not watch youtube videos of this before release :(

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      September 21, 2011 2:06 PM

      Hahaha that would suck to get a legit early copy only to have your character killed by the devs.

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        September 21, 2011 2:08 PM

        it would only be better if the onscreen text was constantly bemoaning the fact that they had to corpse camp and apologizing every time they killed a character.

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        September 21, 2011 2:35 PM

        The game's tagline is PREPARE TO DIE.

        I find this behavior entirely appropriate.

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        September 21, 2011 3:09 PM

        [deleted]

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      September 21, 2011 2:06 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 21, 2011 2:07 PM

      THAT is how you combat piracy and cheating.

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      September 21, 2011 2:07 PM

      that is fuckign awesome

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      September 21, 2011 2:08 PM

      awesome!

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      September 21, 2011 2:09 PM

      let's be honest though: if blizzard or someone else was killing off chars in a game people would be so outraged. it's only because from software is so beloved and small that everyone finds it funny.

      "HOW DARE BLIZZARD KILL ME I LOST ALL MY LOOT"

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        September 21, 2011 2:13 PM

        [deleted]

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        September 21, 2011 2:26 PM

        no

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        September 21, 2011 2:27 PM

        People are playing ghetto leaked versions of the beta already - if Blizzard made it so the NPCs turned on you and killed you instantly or something, people would think it was hilarious. And it would also probably have the same effect that this will: more people playing the leak in order to see it.

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        September 21, 2011 2:27 PM

        I assume we're talking about pirated software in this thread?

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          September 21, 2011 2:29 PM

          no, it's the real game, just leaked early..through various channels as most titles do. it's not a huge profile so i can imagine some copies snuck out.

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        September 21, 2011 2:28 PM

        More like because it's Dark Souls. It just fits with that game.

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        September 21, 2011 2:33 PM

        Blizzard has done this, though it was back in Vanilla. Players found a way to exploit ZG rep so they put in Guardians of Blizzard near the area where you gained the rep, they one shotted everyone who went near the area.

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        September 21, 2011 2:36 PM

        No, I'm pretty sure that it would be just as awesome if Blizzard did it.

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        September 21, 2011 4:11 PM

        nope, it would still be awesome.

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        September 21, 2011 7:35 PM

        Not like it's perma death. What's the big deal?

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      September 21, 2011 2:24 PM

      ahahha

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      September 21, 2011 2:25 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 21, 2011 2:26 PM

      best copyright enforcement of all time

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      September 21, 2011 2:29 PM

      Fucking amazing. hahahahahaha

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      September 21, 2011 2:39 PM

      hahahah I'd expect no less.

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      September 21, 2011 2:43 PM

      so play it offline then right?

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      September 21, 2011 2:45 PM

      Hahaha best and most appropriate idea ever.

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      September 21, 2011 2:47 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 21, 2011 2:47 PM

      Bring on the pain motherfuckers. Cant wait for this game. Demons Souls was pretty easy on an non N+ game, the only hurdle I had was the last boss. Trying to kill him o{without taking any soul drain]o was no easy task.

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      September 21, 2011 2:51 PM

      This makes me weep... with masochistic pleasure. >:} DARK SOULS GOTY 2011

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        September 21, 2011 3:31 PM

        David are you ready to crush some noobs? I know I am.

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          September 21, 2011 7:38 PM

          I will make noobs tremble in terror when "YOUR WORLD IS BEING INVADED" flashes across their screen.

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      September 21, 2011 3:08 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 21, 2011 3:10 PM

      TYPO ALERT

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      September 21, 2011 3:12 PM

      Companies should do things like this more often. No need to ban. Permanent character death or achievement wipe. Erase all prestige levels from a CoD player and set them back to zero.

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      September 21, 2011 3:20 PM

      Best copy protection ever: Ruin the fun.

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        September 21, 2011 3:26 PM

        I'm not sure how this is any form of copy protection. If anything, I would find it pretty exhilarating to be playing with that happening.

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      September 21, 2011 3:44 PM

      HARD GAME CLUB's game of the year, I'm calling it already.

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      September 21, 2011 6:48 PM

      You know, I wish I could get this early just for this. Imagine having to run away from this Black Phantom of Death know that you have no chance to survive.

      Kinda like the rest of Dark Souls.

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      September 21, 2011 7:53 PM

      Fucking. Awesome.

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      September 21, 2011 7:59 PM

      So awesome.

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      September 21, 2011 8:01 PM

      [deleted]

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