Dark Souls for PC Will Be Offline Until After Elden Ring’s Debut

Bandai Namco and From Software have announced that online play won’t return to the PC installments of the Dark Souls franchise until after Elden Ring is released.

From Software disabled the multiplayer aspects of the various PC releases of Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3 when a vulnerability affecting the games’ networking code was revealed on Jan. 22. That flaw can reportedly be exploited to enable remote code execution on a target player’s PC.

Those servers were taken down on Jan. 23. Now, several weeks later, From Software and Bandai Namco say they won’t be brought back online until after Elden Ring’s debut on Feb. 25:

Tweet

The companies say they “have identified the cause and are working on fixing the issue.” They seem to have started with Elden Ring, because they say they “have made sure the necessary security measures are in place for this title on all target platforms,” and the game isn’t delayed.

Console gamers can still play Dark Souls online; the problem appears to be limited to the franchise’s PC installments. (Whether or not that was also going to be true of Elden Ring is unclear, given the companies’ reference to “all target platforms” for that title.)

Here’s the kicker: Bandai Namco and From Software don’t know when Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3 for PC will have their online play restored. The companies merely say that they “will make an announcement as soon as the schedule is determined for resuming online services.”