TheDark Souls PC servers have been taken offline by Bandai Namco Entertainment and FromSoftware following reports of the multiplayer exploit. The Dark Souls games feature online multiplayer that enables players to leap into each others' playthroughs to provide a bit of support, amongst other things. With how difficult the games are, co-op is among the how to play Dark Souls.
Despite already having several spiritual successors, for example 2022's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and the upcoming Elden Ring, as well as last year's Demon's Souls Remake, many fans still play the three main Dark Souls games. Modders have even gone as far as creating their own sequel for that original Dark Souls called Nightfall, proving the games' popularity even long afterwards their release.
Bandai Namco and From Software announced through the Dark SoulsTwitter account (viaKotaku)that the servers for Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls: Remastered happen to be temporarily taken offline, with the servers for Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition to follow shortly, because of an “issue with online services.”While the announcement did not share any details on the issue, it's probably talking about an RCE exploitshared by Reddit user TripleBrownMeow, sparking concerns it could affect Elden Ring multiplayer as well. Additionally, Bandai Namco replied towards the post stating that a study was already “submitted to the relevant internal teams.” At the time of writing, it appears servers are still offline.
PvP servers for Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls: Remastered happen to be temporarily deactivated to allow they to investigate recent reports of an issue with online services.
Servers for Dark Souls: PtDE will join them shortly.We apologize for this inconvenience.
— Dark Souls (@DarkSoulsGame) January 23, 2022
See the post on Twitter here.
The RCE exploit allows hackers to remotely access and control a player's PC. From there they are able to execute commands, steal sensitive data or information, and even brick it. An article around the Dark Souls 3 subreddit by user Jonientz explains that only a number of people understand how to execute the exploit. The hack seemed to be observed in action during a recent livestream, that is believed to have been executed by one of the aforementioned people experienced in the hack to achieve the interest of Bandai Namco and FromSoftware.
While the 3 Dark SoulsPC servershave already been removed, fans are still concerned that the same exploit may be contained in Elden Ring.Elden Ring'srelease date is the following month,andan issue this serious could definitely put people off from playing the game at launch if there's no assurance that it's fixed. While it's unlikely that this type of highly-anticipated game could be delayed by this kind of exploit, it could well impact plans to implement the multiplayer at launch.
Hopefully, Bandai Namco and FromSoftware can deal with the issue on time, not just for those who still wish to play the affected Dark Souls titles but in addition for those who might be wary that could also affect Elden Ring. Fans will have to wait until either or each of the businesses make the official announcement on the matter, that ought to hopefully clear up concerns concerning the links between Dark Souls and Elden Ring multiplayer.
