'Dark Souls' update: 'Big news' turns out to be new clothing merchandise

Bandai Namco teased fans with a post on Twitter hinting at big things to come. Fans speculated that this pertained to a complete remaster of the original game or a surprise announcement of an early release for "Dark Souls III."  As it turns out, the big news was nothing more than an announcement of a new clothing line.

Merchandising is not new to video games and the "Dark Souls" franchise has seen a lot of it in recent years but this will be the first time Bandai Namco themselves will be selling shirts and sweaters directly. However, the choice to call this announcement "big news" greatly disappointed fans and has since caused a lot of negative backlash.

According to a report from VG 24/7, the clothing products are only available in the U.K. at the time being, making the announcement an even bigger issue for gamers in the U.S., causing many fans to ask why Bandai Namco would tease something only for it to be available to a very specific crowd.

A report from Kotaku also bashes several of the merchadise's design, particularly a shirt that is riddled with all sorts of memes and video game terms that appear to be based on a shirt design from Olly Moss shirt. The report also points out that numerous third-party companies already offer high-quality "Dark Souls" merchandise.

However, the negative feedback has subsided but only by a small fraction following the announcement that Steamforged Games will be developing a tabletop game based on the "Dark Souls" video games, launching a campaign soon via Kickstarter. Steamforged Games is responsible for launching the highly successful "Guild Ball" tabletop game. 

"Dark Souls III" already launched in Japan last month but the game's worldwide release is scheduled for April 12, where it will be released for the PC, PS4 and Xbox One.