PS4 Bloodborne Community Returning For PS Plus Release

An upcoming Bloodborne community event is aiming to repopulate its online space just in time for the game's inclusion as a PlayStation Plus freebie. The "Return to Yharnam" event is being organized by players to revisit and cause a spike in Bloodborne online activity, in part to make it a more welcoming place for new players.

The Bloodborne subreddit plans to launch the event starting on March 10 and running through roughly March 24. The plan calls for dedicated veterans to create a new character, engage heavily in co-op missions, and defeat players in PvP to create new Bell Maidens in less populated areas.

Online play in Bloodborne, as in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, allows players to lend each other a hand. But given that Bloodborne is an older game now, it isn't experiencing quite as much activity as it used to, so the surge of new players coming from PlayStation Plus likely won't have as many vets around as they would during the game's heyday. The Return to Yharnam event aims to address that by focusing the community's attention around specific goals.

"These 'Return to…' events seek to reinvigorate the online experience by trying to corral all the fans back to the game at the same time," organizer illusorywall told Kotaku. "There are plenty of fans who aren’t playing these games perpetually, but love to revisit them maybe a couple of times a year. By organizing an event, we hope it catches the attention of these fans, and that they can experience something that could be more special than doing it at another random time on their own."

Bloodborne will be available tomorrow to PlayStation Plus subscribers. It's one of the March offerings along with Ratchet & Clank for PS4, Mighty No. 9 and Legend of Kay for PS3, and Claire: Extended Cut and Bombing Busters for Vita.