A lot of unusual things go on here at ATLUS, and as a publisher known for delivering great JRPG content, Demon’s Souls represented something unique even for us: runaway mainstream success. In the years since its release, Demon’s Souls went far above and beyond our usual humble offerings, partly because it’s such a special game. It’s a Japanese-developed RPG, made by From Software, but it has a distinctly Western look and feel in the weight of its movements and the ruthlessness of its enemies and environments. It’s a single-player title, but it has a strong online component unlike anything that came before it, where you can summon other players as friendly ghosts to give you a hand, or be invaded by hostile marauders without warning. Its unsparing difficulty seemed to mark it as destined to be appreciated only by a select few, yet it’s been universally lauded (and awarded Game of the Year by a few, including GameSpot) and remains our highest-selling title ever.

As a thank you to the fans who have supported it this far and kept the servers burning, we’re excited to announce that Demon’s Souls will be available on Tuesday, January 8th, as a digital download on PSN. Now you can buy it from the comfort of your own home; if you haven’t yet tried it for yourself, its price of $19.99 should be a warmer welcome than any bonfire. What’s more, to celebrate the digital launch of Demon’s Souls, we’re holding a Pure White World Tendency event from January 8th to 14th, which slightly reduces the difficulty of the game and opens up a few things that can only be accessed in the Pure White state.

So come on and find out what everyone else who’s played and loved Demon’s Souls already knows: the joys of dying over and over again. And when you do, don’t forget to leave a message for the next unfortunate wretch who’ll come after you. Our favorite? The real Demon’s Souls starts here…

Between the kinetic energy, the chemical energy, and the thermal energy, there’s a massive arsenal worth of firepower that you’ll be able to choose from when building your ultimate machine of destruction in the game. As we’ve said before, the team at FromSoftware has been a leader in the genre with this franchise for nearly fifteen years, and with Armored Core V, and they mean business.

Each AC you build is highly unlikely to be identical to any others you come across online since customization is key. Brand new for this game are the recon units that players are going to be able to lay out all over the map to survey the land and take out your enemies. What’s also cool are the emblems and detailing customization aspects that let you trick out your AC like no other. You can get crazy with it, and crazy you’ll need to be when taking down some of these new bosses.

Check out the video and watch out towards the end with some of the first glimpses at the MASSIVE bosses that you’ll find yourself not wanting to take down alone. The Armored Core V world is huge, and going it alone will not be recommended. Check back for more updates and start thinking about exactly how you’ll want to customize your own AC come March 20th. As we like to say around the office… COME HEAVY OR NOT AT ALL! See you online!

Armored Core V hits consoles across North America on March 20th, and when it does, we at Namco Bandai Games want everyone up to be up to speed on all of the ins and outs on what it will take to survive while piloting the Armored Cores (or “ACs”) in the dusty, shrapnel-laden world full of limitless online gameplay possibilities.

I’ve been learning more and more from the team about Armored Core V over the last few months between bouts in Soulcalibur V , and the sheer level of detail and customization here has put my jaw on the floor. Make no mistake; Armored Core V is deep. Very deep. So deep, in fact, that the team has introduced an a new Operator Mode that will enable players to actually oversee multiplayer battles from overhead, calling the shots live amid battle as they watch the action and dictate their strategies on the fly to their teams.

There’s more. A lot more. So much more that we’ve made a video to help give you an idea of what’s on the surface and slightly just beneath, but there’s still more to come. Watch our first walkthrough video to get a glimpse of how you’ll be evolving your strategies on the fly, and stay tuned right here to the PlayStation.Blog as well as Facebook.com/armoredcore for more details as we boost our AC’s ever closer to March 20th.