Online services of Dark Souls won't return until after Elden Ring's launch, confirms Bandai Namco

Bandai Namco recently reported that the online services for the Dark Souls series on PC, which had been earlier suspended because of a damaging exploit, will last a while longer. With the release of Elden Ring on the horizon, they have decided not to resume the services “until after the release of Elden Ring.”

Discovered in January 2022, the exploit severely affects the system security of anyone playing Dark Souls 3 while being connected to the internet. Upon learning of the issue, Bandai Namco temporarily deactivated the PvP servers to investigate the cause.

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What is the Dark Souls exploit and when will it be fixed?

The exploit was brought to notice by Twitter user SkeleMann. He pointed out that the exploit could do the following:

“Brick your PC, let your login information be shared, or execute programs in the background.”

He further described it as:

“A Trojan Horse.”

Anyone who engages in the online activities of Dark Souls 3 will be susceptible to getting hacked. Seeing that the game is still popular among players, this was a huge issue that the developers had to address, which led to the deactivation of the services.

Many feared that this issue would affect the upcoming Elden Ring, too. Bandai Namco’s latest communication points towards the same. They stated that they have:

“Extended the investigation to Elden Ring and have made sure the necessary security measures are in place for this title on all target platforms.”

The statement further adds that the time required to set up proper testing environments essentially means that the online services for the Dark Souls game will not return until the upcoming title is launched.

They mentioned they are trying to get the services back as soon as possible and further information will be relayed through the social media channels of the series.

Bandai Namco is gearing up for one of the biggest launches of the past few years. Elden Ring, the two-times Most Anticipated Game winner at The Game Awards, is all set to launch across multiple platforms on February 25.

Created by Hidetaka Miyazaki in collaboration with George R. R. Martin, the game promises to be an exhilarating adventure for players to immerse themselves in.