Dark Souls PC servers to stay down until after Elden Ring launch

Bad news for Dark Souls fans who play on the PC. The security issue that has kept the game’s PvP servers offline for more than two weeks doesn’t look like it is going to be an easy fix. Worse yet, the security issue that has allowed hackers to remotely exploit players’ PCs seems to have been found in the Elden Ring netcode as well.

With a deadline for the Elden Ring release looming over them and a whole series of games lacking an online experience at the moment, Bandai Namco was forced to make a choice and they have chosen Elden Ring. On the official Dark Souls Twitter, Bandai Namco released a statement thanking players for their patience while they work on fixing the security hole in their code. However, Elden Ring’s release at the end of February will have to take priority.

“Due to the time required to set up proper testing environments, online services for the Dark Souls series on PC will not resume until after the release of Elden Ring,” the statement said, adding that they would do everything they can to bring back the online services shortly after 25 February.

This was the first post by the Dark Souls Twitter account since the servers went down on 23 January, so the issues are clearly deeply embedded in the online code. While the statement seems to imply that the same exploit was also found in the Elden Ring code, the company will want to make extra sure that the upcoming launch isn’t marred by hackers and bugs, hence the focus on it rather than an older game with a smaller fanbase.