When you direct the two biggest hits in your company's spotted history, things are bound to look good for your career. Just ask Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator and director of both Demon's Souls and the first Dark Souls game. He now finds himself president of the development company, From Software.
Before Demon's Souls, It had been nearly a decade since From Software developed anything really noteworthy or successful on the video game scene. The early days of the Armored Core series are the best I can think of when it comes to positive praise, but since then, it had mostly been producing cheap action RPGs and knock-off games like Ninja Blade.
Miyazaki's Demon's Souls miraculously burst onto the video game scene in 2008, which allowed From Software to finally graduate from being a B-tier development team, and its follow up, Dark Souls, made it the most exciting Japanese company on the action game market.
Here's where Miyazaki's promotion becomes a little touchy, though. Unlike the first two games, which he directed hands on, he only merely supervised and aided from a distance the development of Dark Souls II. Some might disagree, but his absence is definitely noticeable with the game being a capable sequel but not nearly reaching the same heights as the first two.
Now that Miyazaki is the president of From Software, it doesn't really seem feasible that he will be able to return to the creative side of the company with his hands full on the business side. Who knows? Maybe he prefers this, but I hope he finds some time to stick with From Software's creative process too. Maybe From Software's recent buyer, Kadokawa Games, will hire enough aids and suits to help him free up some spare time to make a game.
