Part of the tension in those games comes from no pause mode. And how would it work with matchmaking? You could just smash the pause button every so often to interrupt invaders, like a big jessie.
Those games don't need pause buttons. Deal with it.
You could easily just put the pause function on hold while you are actually connected to other players. The games also have an offline mode for crying out loud and still don't offer you a pause function at least there.
Those "deal with it" answers are pretty shitty to be honest. Not being able to pause the game when the phone rings or another person is trying to talk to me is definitely NOT part of what makes the games so tense for me. It's a silly flaw and always has been, no matter how much I love From's games.
It's not like we are talking about a controversial topic like that difficulty setting discussion. Pausing the game would not destroy what the game was built for at all.
If I could pause the game every time I shit my pants it wouldn't be a Souls game.
Like in almost any horror game ever? Many games have a unforgiving, tense way of playing it. Yet you can still pause these games, because that's just what people have to do if real life is knocking. If the phone rings, the immersion has already been broken, no matter whether I decide to pause the game or not. Immersion is a ridiculous argument considering the reason people want a pause function is for situations which happen outside of the game.
Also, people arguing that you could just quit the game... Are you serious? You are admitting that pausing is necessary sometimes. So instead of being in favour of the easiest and oldest solution to this problem, hitting pause, you'll shut down the game. Which leads to exactly the same "negative effect" you are naming against the pause function, breaking the immersion, but instead is a lot more inconvenient and needs A LOT more time immerse you into the game again.
I love challenge, I love tension, I love Soulsborne. But knowing that the progress from all your nervous cautiousness and success is completely taken away not because of your own mistake but because of the doorbell.. THAT'S an immersion-killer if I have ever seen one.