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Bandai Namco still can't estimate when Dark Souls PC servers will be back online

After discovering a multiplayer exploit in the Dark Souls games, the PC servers on all of the games have been down for over three months.

TJ Denzer

May 10, 2022 11:45 AM

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Back in January 2022, the Dark Souls community discovered major issues with the PC multiplayer servers for the game. Dark Souls players were able to prove that on any of the games, from the first Dark Souls up to Dark Souls 3, an exploit could be employed that could theoretically give outside users backdoor access to one’s PC through command prompts. That was a huge problem and Bandai Namco quickly closed down servers to address the matter. It prioritized Elden Ring, but three months later, Dark Souls PC servers still haven’t come back online and Bandai Namco reportedly doesn’t know when they will.

The state of affairs regarding the Dark Souls games’ PC servers was updated in an alleged email from Bandai Namco customer support to a player, as shared on the Dark Souls 3 subreddit. In the email, Bandai Namco assures players that they are still working on the matter and are still aiming to get PC servers for the Dark Souls games back online. However, the Bandai Namco rep included that they still couldn’t offer an estimate on when the issue will be resolved and PC servers can be brought back online.

Bandai Namco initially brought Dark Souls PC multiplayer servers offline in January 2022 after the backdoor exploit that could be run through multiplayer in the games was demonstrated. Bandai Namco has been working on a fix since, but the priority was definitely given to Elden Ring. Reportedly, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco were able to completely resolve the multiplayer exploit matter for Elden Ring. Even so, Dark Souls servers remained offline through Elden Ring’s launch and the months since its successful launch.

With Bandai Namco itself still unable to provide an estimate as to when Dark Souls servers will be back online, fans of those games will just have to keep running solo for the time being until a fix is properly implemented. Stay tuned as we continue to follow this situation for further updates.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.