Demon's Souls was first announced in early October 2008 through that week's issue of
Famitsu, with the game being playable at the
Tokyo Game Show (TGS) the following week.
[25]Reaction to the TGS demo was described by Kajii as "nothing short of a disaster" due to its unexpectedly challenging nature. Many people assumed the game's combat was still in development, with Kajii lamenting that the game was unsuited for a demo environment.
[11] Sony president
Shuhei Yoshida was also dismissive of the game. When he play-tested it, he spent two hours playing the game and failed to get beyond the starting area. Believing it to be simply poor quality, he called it "an unbelievably bad game".
[21]
Demon's Souls released in Japan on February 5, 2009 by
Sony Computer Entertainment Japan.
[26] Due to negative feedback from Sony staff and the Japanese press, Sony decided against localizing the game for Western markets, a decision Sony and Yoshida in particular later regretted.
[21][27] Sony did create an English text version of the game for the Asian market.
[28] This version was translated by
Active Gaming Media.
[29] The Chinese language version was released on February 26.
[30]