Dark Souls multiplayer features won’t return until after the release of ‘Elden Ring’

engadget.com:

Dark Souls fans on PC will have to wait until after the release of Elden Ring before developer FromSoftware reactivates player-versus-player servers. The announcement comes after a hacker identified a vulnerability within Dark Souls 3 that allowed them to access the computers of multiple streamers remotely. When news of the exploit first broke, FromSoftware and Dark Souls series publisher Bandai Namco shut down the multiplayer servers of Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls to investigate the issue. At the time, they didn’t say how long it would take to resolve the problem.

“Thanks to [the community], we have identified the cause and are working on fixing the issue,” the two companies said in an update posted to Twitter on Wednesday. According to From, multiplayer servers for the Dark Souls series won’t be back online until after February 25th due to the time needed to create a proper testing environment for each game. The studio promised to share more information as soon as it could. “We will continue to do everything we can to bring back these services as possible,” it said.

If you’re a fan of PvP combat in Dark Souls, it’s not great that you have to wait to enjoy that aspect of the game again. But if there’s a silver lining to the news, it’s that From and Bandai Namco say they’re working to address the vulnerability in Elden Ring ahead of the game’s release later this month. Hopefully, that means the highly-anticipated title won’t have any launch day issues.