FromSoftware Gives Dark Souls PC Server Update (I Don’t Believe Them!)

Back in January this year, a huge security flaw was discovered within the multiplayer PvP system of Dark Souls (1-3). One that could lead to an unwanted invasion. – No, not an invasion within the game as the mechanic would clearly intend, but rather potentially of your own computer system itself!

While details of the issue have clearly never been disclosed (at least not yet) what was confirmed was that a bug within the Dark Souls multiplayer system could potentially allow a third party to execute remote code on your system. Through this, malware could (again potentially) be downloaded and installed onto your computer. And rather ironically, this would all be instigated by someone who likely invaded your ‘in-game’ character.

Dark Souls Multiplayer Security Bug!

With this in mind, it was hardly surprising that developer FromSoftware made the decision to shut down all PC Dark Souls multiplayer servers until the matter could be resolved. And just in case you’re wondering why they did this to all of them, in simple terms, the invasions/multiplayer system (and coding) has largely remained the same throughout Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3. In other words, this was a security issue that affected all three titles!

While Elden Ring has clearly proven to be a more than competent distraction over this pretty significant period of time, however, many people have been wondering exactly when the servers would be restored. A factor not helped by the fact that FromSoftware has been somewhat quiet on the subject.

Following a report via Engadget, however, for those of you who have been waiting, there is some good news! – FromSoftware has confirmed that the Dark Souls PC servers should be getting switched back on again shortly with Dark Souls 3 being the first!

FromSoftware Finally Gives an Update!

Following repeated contact efforts, FromSoftware has finally given an update to the Dark Souls server situation. In it, they said:

“We are currently in the process of restoring the online servers for the Dark Souls series on PC. We plan to restore online service for each game progressively, bringing back servers for Dark Souls 3 once we complete the necessary work to correct the problem.”

“We want to thank all our players for your patience and understanding as we work to fix this issue.”

With my making a bit of a moderately controversial claim in my title here, however, there are reasons why I’m not exactly buying FromSoftware’s excuse for this delay.

The REAL Reason Dark Souls Servers Have Been Offline For So Long?…

Firstly, and I stand to be proven wrong on this, it’s my understanding that Elden Ring basically continued to utilise pretty much the same multiplayer system that was seen in Dark Souls 1-3. This, by proxy, should’ve seen it share the same security flaw. Other than for maintenance etc, Elden Ring’s multiplayer servers have never been shut down since the game’s release. At least, not for any kind of extended period of time. In other words, if this security issue was there in Elden Ring, it was fixed before release!

Secondly, it’s hard to deny that Elden Ring has been a huge success for FromSoftware. Perhaps bigger than even they anticipated. As such, I wouldn’t be surprised if any resources looking to fix this Dark Souls multiplayer issue were reassigned to Elden Ring with the actual ‘fix’ being put on the back burner until the initial hype and player count died down a little.

Thirdly, and in a concept that somewhat cynically expanding on my second theory, given how hugely successful Elden Ring has been, I’m almost curious as to whether FromSoftware has had this problem solved for months, but has deliberately kept the Dark Souls servers offline to, at least temporarily, reallocate their server resources to accommodate the player loads for Elden Ring. – Be honest, does this third one really sound outside the realms of probability?… – Admittedly though, it would be shockingly honest for FromSoftware to say ‘we knew Elden Ring was going to be big. And more so, we didn’t exactly know what kind of demand this would put on our servers. So to save disruption to our new game, we made the decision to take our old ones offline for a little while. The needs of the many versus the needs of the few, etc. – The security issue was real, but overall, it proved to be a convenient reason to delay the Dark Souls servers getting turned back on.’

Overall, and as much as I love FromSoftware’s games, I think the above third theory is probably the truth. – What do you think though? – Let us know in the comments!