Publisher Bandai Namco and developer From Software have quietly removed several tags referencing Dark Souls online multiplayer from numerous Steam pages. As the online servers have yet to be re-enabled for multiple Dark Souls games, this isn’t too surprising; however, the publisher is sending some mixed signals.
Why were Dark Souls online multiplayer servers shut down?
Online servers for Dark Souls games, such as Dark Souls 2, 3, and Remastered, have been down since the announcement back on February 9 which was sent out via a tweet on the official Dark Souls account. This was due to a Dark Souls exploit that allowed hackers to use a remote code execution (RCE) to execute malicious code on other players. At the time of the announcement, Bandai Namco had plans to restore online capabilities after a thorough investigation of the exploit:
“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. We will continue to do everything we can to bring these services as soon as possible. We will make an announcement as soon as the schedule is determined for resuming online services.”
Since then, no such announcement has been made, and it’s been long enough that Bandai Namco has decided to remove the tags for “Online PvP” and “Online Co-Op” from the Steam pages for Dark Souls 2, 3, and Remastered, as spotted by TheOuterhaven. This would seem to suggest that Bandai Namco and From Software do not want new players to assume that the Dark Souls online multiplayer servers are live.
However, in the general description for some titles, multiplayer is still mentioned. The one for Dark Souls Remastered says that it has “The Way of the Multiplayer (up to 6 players with dedicated servers)”, and the one for Dark Souls II still has one bullet point that reads “Evolved multiplayer: updated multiplayer system enables improved online interaction to bring forward cooperative & competitive play.” Thus, the removal of the online tags from the Steam pages seem like some confusing half-measure.
In other news, the latest Xbox console update allows you to change your TV’s input using the Xbox controller, and you can check out our review for LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
