The matter of fact is that EA forgot to take players of these classic titles into consideration and as a result – these titles were removed from the storefront. Bruzzo expresses his gratitude for players’ interest in these games decades after release, and EA has started a promotional offer which gives these games for free until September 3.

“When making decisions that affect players we take the time to review exactly what the potential impacts are and whether they serve the players best interests,” Bruzzo said. “When we delisted Syndicate and Ultima Underworld we missed that step and so didn’t fully consider the players perspective.”

“From the level of interest players showed in delisting these games, it was clear that people still wanted them to be available, so we did two things. The first was to ensure that going forward we have a process in place that considers the player perspective in listing decisions. The second was to relist the titles and make them available to as many people as possible with a month-long promotion.”

EA is by no means perfect, but has shown signs of improvements following the botched release of Star Wars Battlefront 2 in 2017. It still makes a few missteps here and there – with ridiculous pricing for next-gen versions Battlefield 2042 and FIFA 22, for instance. You can read more about the company’s recent moves and stature through here.

It was unlike any other RPG released at the time. While somewhat underrated in Japan, Demon’s Souls became a huge hit in the West and FromSoftware would use it as the base for creating Dark Souls. The rest is history as they say but it’s interesting to look back at the titles that had Souls-like elements before the term “Souls-like” even became a thing. Let’s take a look at them here.

King’s Field

Before Dark Souls, there was Demon’s Souls and before that, there was FromSoftware’s King’s Field. Released in 1994 for the PlayStation One, King’s Field was a first person RPG that saw players traversing dungeons and killing monsters. Its difficulty put many people off at the time, further accentuated by the stamina meter which drained with attacks. Still, the emphasis on exploration and first person combat stood out especially since consoles didn’t have many games like it. Antiquated as it may have been, King’s Field is where it all really began for the Souls series.