Lance McDonald, the creator of the highly popular Bloodborne 60fps patch, has reported receiving a DMCA takedown notice from Sony Interactive Entertainment. The notice demanded the removal of all online links to the patch, which McDonald has complied with. He highlighted the irony of this action, recalling a humorous encounter with former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida where he openly discussed creating the mod, prompting laughter from Yoshida.
Bloodborne, a critically acclaimed FromSoftware title, remains a significant point of contention among fans. Despite its popularity, Sony has yet to release an official next-gen patch to boost the game's frame rate from 30fps to 60fps, leading to persistent calls for a remaster or sequel. This lack of official support has spurred community efforts, like McDonald's patch and recent breakthroughs in PS4 emulation using ShadPS4, which enables a near-remastered 60fps experience on PC. Whether this emulation progress influenced Sony's decision to issue the DMCA remains unclear; IGN has reached out to Sony for comment.
Shuhei Yoshida recently offered his perspective on Bloodborne's continued absence from next-gen platforms in an interview with Kinda Funny Games. He theorized that Hidetaka Miyazaki, the game's creator, cherishes Bloodborne deeply and is hesitant to allow anyone else to work on a remaster or update, even though he himself is too busy to undertake the project. Yoshida emphasized this was merely a personal theory and not based on confidential information.
Despite Miyazaki's frequent deflection of Bloodborne questions in interviews, citing FromSoftware's lack of IP ownership, he did acknowledge in February 2023 that a release on more modern hardware would benefit the game. Thus, Bloodborne remains a dormant yet highly anticipated title, nearly a decade after its initial release.
