Is the Demon's Souls remake coming to PC? Here's what we know

Is the Demon's Souls remake coming to PC? That should be an easy question to answer, but after September's PS5 games showcase, it's not. Despite trending toward more PC releases of its exclusives, Sony is holding firm that the stealth announcing of Demon's Souls PC version, via some small text on its trailer, was a mistake.

That said, it's an odd mistake to make for a company that recently stated its enthusiasm for PC releases. But if it really was an innocent mistake, we're not convinced this is the last we'll ever hear of Demon's Souls. Here's the situation so far.

Sony says Demon's Souls PC announcement was 'human error'

PC fans were delightfully surprised to see a message at the very end of the new Demon's Souls trailer that promised it's "Also available on PC." It didn't take long for the trailer to be pulled off PlayStation's official YouTube channel. Later, Sony clarified to PC Gamer that the PC message at the end of the trailer was "human error" and that Demon's Souls would be a PlayStation 5 exclusive.

When asked if Demon's Souls would ever release on PC, Sony declined to elaborate further. It seems like Sony may be keeping the door open to a PC version, but wants everyone to be excited about its new console right now. Even if there are zero PC plans right now, that could always change.

Watch the latest Demon's Souls remake gameplay trailer

The trailer shown off during September's PS5 showcase was a beautiful demonstration of how Demon's Souls will look and play on the PS5. It's looking pretty amazing, so it's even more disappointing that Sony retracted the PC announcement.

The version linked above (uploaded by Gamespot) still shows the PC announcement at the end, despite Sony removing the trailer from its official channels and reuploading it with the message removed.

Sony has said it's exploring more PC ports

What makes Sony's slip-up more perplexing is that, as recently as August 2020, the company expressed interest in more PC ports of its console exclusives. "We will explore expanding our 1st party titles to the PC platform in order to promote further growth in our profitability," Sony's 2020 corporate report states.

Sony's first big plunge into the PC was Horizon: Zero Dawn's port released in August. We've also gotten solid hints that a PC version of The Last of Us 2 is in the works, and Media Molecule has openly stated that Dreams will someday come to PC. Suffice to say, it seems like nothing is off the table for Sony, so it's disappointing that the company is being cagey about Demon's Souls.

The game would almost certainly be a smash success on PC, too. That might be the case for any of Sony's first-party games, but we have ample evidence that From Software's RPGs are hugely popular. The first Dark Souls alone sold millions of copies on PC, and the series has only gotten bigger since.

Why didn't Demon's Souls ever come to PC, anyway?

Unlike the Dark Souls series, which is fully developed by From Software and published by Bandai Namco, Demon's Souls was a collaboration between From Software and Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio. Sony, presumably, owns the intellectual property, and until very recently, hasn't released any of its games on PC. Bloodborne is a PS4-exclusive for the same reason.

This new version of Demon's Souls is being developed by Bluepoint Games, seemingly without From Software's collaboration. Even if the remake never gets a PC port, you can at least play the original via emulation, with greatly improved resolution and framerate.

If it does come to PC, it might cost $70

That's the price of the PS5 version, anyway. Companies have slowly been dipping their toes into a $70 price for new games, so this might be the end of the $60 standard. Hopefully PC games will still get a slight discount in some cases, but regardless, there's always the next Steam sale.