A fanmade Bloodborne demake that reimagined the PS4 action RPG as a PS1 game has been hit with a Sony DMCA notice, meaning it's no longer available for download.
The aptly-named Bloodborne PSX (using the console's early PlayStation X codename) was previously available on Itch.io, but a takedown was issued by Sony yesterday, and the game's page now simply leads to a single line of text stating its files have been "suspended for copyright or trademark claim".
This is the second Bloodborne-related DMCA notice Sony has issued in a week. Last Friday, modder Lance McDonald revealed he'd received a DMCA instructing him to take down his 60fps patch for the game, an instruction with which he quickly complied.
These DMCA notices have sparked speculation that Sony could be about to announce its own official Bloodborne remaster; after all, there's got to be a reason Sony is suddenly taking notice of Bloodborne-related fan projects online, right?
Well...not necessarily. This isn't the first time Walther has run afoul of Sony with regards to Bloodborne fan projects; last year, she was told by Sony that she needed to scrub the Bloodborne branding from racer Nightmare Kart and release it as its own thing.
Of course, it's possible that was also part of Sony's plans to release a Bloodborne remaster, but many months have passed between then and now, and no remaster or remake of the game was revealed in the interim.
It's entirely possible that this DMCA, as well as the one aimed at McDonald, just represents Sony's lawyers suddenly waking up and realizing they need to look busy, but as a huge Bloodborne fan myself, I understand the need for hope.
Bloodborne's age and relatively poor performance on PS4 have resulted in repeated calls for a remaster or remake over the years, but Sony has yet to heed those calls.
However, a State of Play presentation is rumored to be landing next week, as hinted at by Switch 2 date leaker NateTheHate. It's possible that Sony intends to reveal its own Bloodborne remaster during that presentation, and that that's the reason behind the increased DMCA frequency.
We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, you can still check out the original Bloodborne on PS4 (and PS5 via backwards compatibility).
