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Dark Souls 3 PVP & co-op brought back online on PC following security fix

FromSoftware has patched a security vulnerability in Dark Souls 3's online gameplay. Fixes are still coming for Dark Souls Remastered and Dark Souls 2.

TJ Denzer

August 25, 2022 8:05 AM

Image via Bandai Namco

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One of the more interesting stories of the year, especially parallel to Elden Ring’s success, has been the inability to play the Dark Souls games online on PC throughout much of 2022. A security vulnerability discovered late in 2021 pushed FromSoftware to bring the online elements including PVP and co-op offline. Now, after many months of waiting, Dark Souls 3 has been patched, the game is fully playable on PC again, and FromSoftware promises that similar fixes to Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls Remastered are on the way.

FromSoftware shared the major update on fixes for the Dark Souls series in a Twitter thread posted on the Japanese FromSoftware Player Support Twitter on August 25, 2022. According to the thread, Dark Souls 3 has implemented a fix. The game is patched and PC players should be able to engage in all of Dark Souls 3’s online elements again. The thread also promises that similar fixes for Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls Remastered on PC will be implemented in the very near future.

It was back in January 2022 that FromSoftware officially took online play for the PC Dark Souls games down after the community demonstrated security risks that could potentially allow a hacker remote access to a player’s PC through the game. Obviously, FromSoftware put its priorities on launching Elden Ring at the time and kept the Dark Souls servers down as it first created a fix that would ensure Elden Ring wouldn’t face a similar problem. There was finally word of FromSoftware closing in on a fix back in May 2022, but it still wasn’t quite ready yet.

As of today, Dark Souls 3 is fixed up and players can finally enjoy everything the game has to offer offline and online on PC. Hopefully fixes for the rest of the series won’t be far behind so players can get back to PVP and co-op in Dark Souls Remastered and Dark Souls 2.

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.