Demon's Souls gets Euro date

Namco Bandai has confirmed that it will distribute highly acclaimed action role-playing game Demon's Souls in EMEA and Asia Pacific regions.

A spiritual successor to the little known - in the West at least - King's Field, the PlayStation 3 exclusive was developed by From Software and originally published by Sony in Japan.

The game's high difficulty level and expected niche appeal left an eighth month gap between the game's original Japanese release in February 2009 and its North American launch from specialist publisher Atlus.

Following extremely positive reviews from the Western press, including a 9/10 score from sister site Eurogamer, the game went on to sell triple Atlus' original expectations.

With no Europe presence though Atlus was unable to publish the game outside of North America and the game has remained in limbo until Namco Bandai's announcement of a June 25 release date.

In the manner of other cult Japanese imports, such as Sega's recent Yakuza 3, the game will initially be sold in Europe only as part of a limited edition retail pack. This will contain a soundtrack CD, new artbook and strategy guide.

"The game is exactly the kind of quality experience with which we are continuing to grow the Namco Bandai Games portfolio of titles, and we will be working hard to ensure it’s at least as much of a success in our markets as it has already proven to be elsewhere," said Olivier Comte, vice president of marketing, sales & publishing at Namco Bandai.