Maybe, I don't play souls games anymore or follow trends much.

It was pretty clearly GOTY 2022.

Which isn't to say it's everyone's favorite. Just like Time Magazine's person of the year. It just means it was THE prominent game of the year. That said, it was very popular.

That's why GOTY means nothing to me. Did Elden Ring have denuvo? Can't see that game coming to GOG.

No. In fact it's trivial to play it offline without Steam.

Me either. I played it on Steam like everyone else.

I still enjoy them from time-to-time, but...

... I'm no longer excited by the genre. In fact when new Souls-likes get released, I sigh in exhaustion (kind of the same with many new twitch FPS games).

I still like difficult games, but I tend now to prefer team mechanics and more-then-not turn-based combat. Still...

... I'd like to see more Souls-likes here -- especially From's work.

The Dark Souls games kind of have that, insomuch as you can summon other real players, and/or NPC allies, to help you fight the tough bosses, which are much easier to beat with other real players helping you as compared versus fighting them solo.

The NPC allies are hit and miss though; sometimes they are worth taking and very useful in helping to beat the boss, and other times they are huge disadvantages to bring with you in the situations where the boss will dispatch the NPC quickly, but the boss will still have double the health pool than it otherwise would have had as compared to if you didn't take any NPC into the fight with you to help.

But Dark Souls games are very much designed based on the idea that taking down the tough bosses is meant to be a team effort of co-op players working together.

Yeah, the only Souls game I played with summons was Dark Souls II. Other than that (for me) they were all solitary experiences.

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed the genre, but...

... I've just grown a little tired of the formula. For me it takes a lot of time an exasperation, and sadly as of late I have little time available and little patience for exhausting experiences. Still, will pick up Elden Ring one day sooner than later. ;)

Capcom has said recently that their current main market is PC. So, I'd expect to see this transition from more Japanese developers/publishers. It's just going to take a while...

Capcom Explained Why It Prioritizes the PC Market

I guess I'm a horrible person then, or at least a horrible gamer. Hell, I'm even worse than that, I'm super-extra-worse-than-Hitler horrible, because I wouldn't buy Dark Souls even if it was released here.

1. CD Projekt Red partnered with Bandai Namco for physical distribution/publishing of their games in certain regions.
2. CD Projekt Red's version of Geralt of Rivia was the special guest star in Bandai Namco's Soulcalibur VI.
3. Bandai Namco is the publisher for Little Nightmares and Little Nightmares II on GOG.

I was hoping more fruit would come from that relationship and we'd see the souls-likes they have the rights to published here: Dark Souls I-II-III, Elden Ring and Code Vein.