FromSoftware is ‘in the process’ of restoring Dark Souls PC servers

PC Dark Souls players have had a rough go of it recently, as the servers for all three games in the series have been down for months due to a nasty exploit.

In a recent communication with PC Gamer, FromSoftware confirmed that it will bring the PC servers for the games back from the dead. However, the company did not provide any sort of specific timetable for such a resurrection.

"We are currently in the process of restoring the online servers for the Dark Souls series on PC," FromSoftware told PC Gamer in part. "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."

Open secret — This mess all started when Souls series fans discovered a vulnerability in the game's online code which could allow hackers to gain control of an unsuspecting player's PC. Initially, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco didn't do much about the exploit, which led at least one hacker to use the RCE (remote code execution) exploit on a Dark Souls 3 streamer in an apparent attempt to draw attention to it.

While the community succeeded in getting FromSoftware to acknowledge the problem — which was convenient, because Elden Ring was likely to suffer from the same vulnerability — it's had the nasty side effect of killing the entire series' online servers for months on PC. The "progressive" language in this quote seems to imply that the games will be restored according to their playerbase rather than the order that they came out. That's fine with me, because Dark Souls 3 is the best one anyway.

Fans find a way — Prior to this announcement, the restoration of the servers was very much an open question. Let's not forget that the servers for the original Demon's Souls were taken down years ago now. Luckily, you can connect to a fan-run dedicated server with a little bit of configuration.