Dark Souls: Remastered Will Still Have An Early Network Test

Gives me time to finish off Bloodborne!

@SouthpawGrammar 😂 I was thinking the exact same thing.

Delays are good. Hopefully It will run at a locked 30fps 100% of the time.

This has left a pretty bad taste in my mouth, I won’t lie.

It’s hard not to imagine that the Switch version has been treated as low priority. Symptomatic of port problems of the past, for which Nintendo fans have traditionally suffered worst.

Not impressed.

They delayed it to add motion control, unlike Doom they want motion control burned into the cartridge, so it will last forever.

@HappyMaskedGuy The part that gets me is that there's no explanation nor a release date. The cynic in me believes this was purely a cash grab opportunity; holding back the portable version a few months so people will double dip when it finally comes.

@SwitchVogel Agreed. If they are going to delay it for one specific audience, they should at least be humble and respectful enough to provide a legitimate reason for the delay, instead of a smart ass copout excuse like ‘causality’.

It does nothing but make them appear arrogant and even mocking of their consumer base.

Customer is always right. Not sure who their PR guy is, but someone needs fired.

Nintendo will not be happy about this either. I hope they make some angry phone calls, preferably an unannounced site visit.

Nonsense like this hurts the Switch. AAA third party titles need to be seen as having equal priority, otherwise people won’t bother with the Switch version. Which means the Switch will pale in significance.

This is serious, and it needs a robust response.

@HappyMaskedGuy Well, apparently the Switch version is not handled by QLOC, so I can't speak for port quality. But I used to work in such a company and such delays are not usually a case of bad will; rather technical issues, "spaghetti code" (which is common in Japanese games for some reason) or plain incompetence.
Providing the reason could hurt their PR more than not providing it. Audience is going to forget the delay once the game comes out, but "Namco/porting studio is incompetent" is not something that easily goes away; business partners in particular tend to remember those.

@SmaggTheSmug Those would be almost tolerable excuses if we weren’t just a month away from release. The lack of a legitimate reason for the delay compounds frustration, and looks arrogant.

Meanwhile, people can’t be bothered waiting, and buy the PS4 version instead. Switch gathers dust.

Likely some bug or problem. Still rather have it delayed and be good. Then rushed and be unplayable

@HappyMaskedGuy I bet it's out of Namco's hands anyway. People who will buy PS4/XBO/PC version probably wouldn't buy the Switch port anyway. I wasn't planning to anyway, delay or no delay. I need those sweet 60FPS in my action games.

People are distraught? Doubtful. If they are they need more important things to worry out

@SmaggTheSmug Regardless, it makes the Switch look like a hand-me-down console. Which hurts it’s credibility in the market. It needs to be up front, on the cutting edge. Not hanging around the bargain bins.

This start to be stinking - paid from other companies to delay on Switch

@mgnoodle Silly, patronising comment. Thanks for such a valuable contribution to the discussion.

@Koapa Or they’ve delayed the Switch version to cash in on double dipping.

Any way you look at it, it smells bad.

All sorts of theories for the delay, although I lean more towards the less malignant / conspiratorial side. A possible big bug, a slip up in the coding, a decision to move from a card / download to completely on the card, a request by Nintendo so it doesn’t clash with other games, a reshuffling of resources or movement of programmers to other versions / projects. Either way, that’s the reality of the situation. Guess I’l be able to put a little but more money in the savings kitty this month.

They have to wait for the Labo sword, shield and helmet kit to release... 😊

@HappyMaskedGuy you’re more than welcome. Always happy to help. I hope you enjoy your day. Hugs and kisses xxxxxxx mwah

If the Network Test wasn’t delayed, I’d feel even more suspicious. However, having heard that reviewers and journalists played it at PAX east recently and didn’t notice anything makes me sad since it sounded close to finished and just as good as the other versions

Distraught. Ahahahahahahahaha

This got me thinking of how Switch is desperately lacking big games. This DS delay have cought me off guard. I planed to buy the game but now i have nothing for me on switch till july. So i'm thinking moving on some other platform

Very disappointing news the whole dark souls situation. Sales of switch will slow if things don’t get sorted and new big games get released.

The tell here is if this was a bug in the PS4 version you'd know every release would of been pushed back. This just shows how little weight the Switch versions of games companies have with them.

I doubt its anything cash grabby from Bamco. Its easy for issues to crop up last minute in ports, we have seen it many times before. But they need to still respect the platform and fanbase.

@cfgk24 I really sorta kinda... hope that is the legit reason.......

The Switch source code was probably lost/overwritten. Either that or Bamco forgot to make a Switch version in time for launch?

@cfgk24 That would be so awesome XD I hope it happens in the near future, lol

As long as I get a steady framerate and performance I'll be happy. Would prefer 720p60 instead of 1080p30 or whatever but you do you Namco...

@Findonovan95 @XenoShaun
LABO outselling everything in Japan (including God of War).
https5://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/bestsellers/videogames

They blamed the "nature of causality"?

As in like the laws of physics? Haha sorry we need to delay release because of entropy.

@SwitchVogel I'm a big cynic myself, but how desperate should people be for a double-dip trick to target them? How many is this supposed to hook? With an officially claimed gap of mere couple months? You'd think marketing departments have all heard of this thing called "backlog".

@HappyMaskedGuy the comment may be too human for a fans' discussion, but it's sensible, not silly. Just like the official response has nothing to do with arrogance.

The one thing to hope is that Bandai Namco/From Software don't look at the Switch sales as disappointing when this eventually launches. This will certainly affect sales on the Switch.
I was really looking forward to DS on Switch but now I will probably just get it on the PS4 instead.. It's a shame but just one of those things I guess

@nhSnork Well, it's worked in the past for other games, like DOOM. That's a bit of a different case, but the game got a shot in the arm and plenty of new coverage when the Switch version released.

I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming this was some kind of coding or cartridge manufacturing issue, but I just find it suspicious that the game suddenly can't meet it's release date when we're just one month away, especially after the build available for demonstration at PAX seemed to be basically done. Something just doesn't seem right there.

@HappyMaskedGuy I don't think this means Bamco sees Switch as low priority - the (continuing) success of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 has been a good news story for them. Clearly something has gone wrong, and this Dark Souls port isn't as good as it should be. Could be because Nintendo prefers games to be playable direct from the card, initially. I suspect this would actually have sold better on Switch than PS4, at least in Japan, as the Switch is killing it there, not to mention the fact that PlayStation owners are more likely to have played the original.

That said, I'm extremely disappointed. I ordered this back in March...

Since I already own it on PC and 360, I was not intending to buy it. Even if I were planning to do so, this delay would have killed it for me. I am sick of companies delaying games and offering pathetic, nebulous reasons as to why. If you want my money, ACT like you care about my money.

This concurs directly to what I already thought Nintendo dropped the ball big time on the first half of 2018! In my opinion 2018 has been very poor so far for nintendo fans

@SwitchVogel I can see when people double dip for games they bought a year or more ago but who is going to buy a remaster of a game and buy it again 3 months later? Some will but I don't think this is why they did this lol.

@Dethmunk It was a demo at PAX and demos are always made specifically for the event.
Also the delay could be linked to online functionality. Invasions were a huge part of the series, it's possible the netcode doesn't work that well on the Switch. Which wouldn't be surprising considering Nintendo has always had problems with online gaming.

I hold to the opinion that 3rd party companies doing this, don't like putting in the extra work on a Switch version of games, so they are deliberately delaying or screwing up releases on Switch so they can turn around and cite poor sales as reason to abandon the system.

Is bandai/namco working on Metroid Prime 4?...I wonder how that is going? Still interesting that switch version of games get pushed back to at least of year. While other games get released on time.

@HappyMaskedGuy then Nintendo needs to better shore up their 3rd party relations. Sony and MS do not have these sorts of 3rd party frustrations because they essentially roll out the red carpet to 3rd parties. Nintendo will never learn and this delay ultimately fals back on them.

This kind of stuff used to drive me insane until I actually finally caved and bought a non-Nintendo system, and now all my gaming woes are gone.

@HappyMaskedGuy I know this sucks, but you want Nintendo to make an unannounced visit? Are you serious?

Dark Souls, From Software do not need the Switch. At all. This series has become one of the most popular in the world without any involvement from Nintendo. Nintendo has no power over them and no right to make any kind of “action” against them.

Good or bad, they had their reasons for the delay, it sucks but that’s just how it is. Nintendo has to deal with it. They have no grounds or right to say or do anything. Do not overestimate Nintendo’s pull. Third party devs do not need Nintendo. Especially lately.

People who were gonna buy the Switch version will still buy it. I’m buying it digitally on my Xbox One X because 4k/60fps with a much better online infrastructure is a much better deal, but I had preordered the physical copy for Switch. I’ll still buy it, now it’ll just be later. This will change little, I imagine, other than the ire of some keyboard warriors.

I think the delay is probably something to do with the paid online service.

Quick everybody, to the conspiracy machine!