The first magazine preview of action RPG Dark Souls 2 was published this week. It reveals that the game might not be available by the end of 2013.
The article in the latest issue of EDGE states the development on DS2 started in September 2011. The dev team is said to be much larger than Dark Souls'. For example, the staff dedicated to creating the world is twice as large as it was for DS1. The game's only about 25% complete, though.
EDGE's article also shed some more light on change in director. The decision to replace Hidetaka Miyazaki, director of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, was made because Namco Bandai and From Software want to move the series in a "fresh direction." Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, who previously worked on the Another Century's Episode series, are the new co-directors.
The teaser for EDGE's piece quoted Shibuya as saying that Dark Souls 2 would be more understandable and straightforward. The full article explains what he meant by that. He wants to make sure that the Covenant system will be clearer than it was in the original DS. He also hopes the story will be less subtle. That being said, the game and its plot will still have plenty of hidden aspects as well.
Dark Souls 2 was announced for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC at VGAs. The fact that it's being developed for current-gen consoles makes a 2014 release (or later) surprising. It's widely believed that the next Xbox and PlayStation will be available by the end of 2013.
