Hidetaka Miyazaki, director of Demon's Souls and eventual president of From Software, got his start at From Software in 2004. He had originally worked for a US IT company called Oracle Corporation, until he came into contact with some old college friends that suggested some games for him to play, one of which was Ico. Miyazaki had considered applying to a game development studio when he was nearing graduation, but ended up at the aforementioned IT company. After playing the game, Miyazaki said in an interview "That game awoke me to the possibilities of the medium [...] I wanted to make one myself."

However, Miyazaki was 29 years old at the time, too old for graduate positions and also too inexperienced for other companies, making it difficult to find work elsewhere. He eventually managed to find a position in From Software as a coder for the Armored Core series in 2004. From there, he gained a director position for Demon's Souls, which itself created the successful Soul's game series, most notably Dark Souls and Bloodborne. By May 2014, Miyazaki was promoted to President of From Software.