Every Dark Souls PvP server, across all three games in the series on PC, has been “temporarily deactivated” by Bandai Namco and From Software in the wake of the discovery of a security exploit that could reportedly allow hackers to take control of a user’s PC.
With barely a month to go before the release of From Software’s latest action-RPG Elden Ring, an alert has gone round the Dark Souls community of a new remote code execution security vulnerability – an exploit that, reportedly, could let hackers take over a user’s PC. They could do that entirely through Dark Souls PvP, it seems, particularly in Dark Souls 3. Some in the community have suggested the same issue could potentially be present in the upcoming Elden Ring, though this is unconfirmed.
The good news is that Bandai Namco is aware of the issue and has already taken steps to prevent players from succumbing to it. A community rep posted in the Reddit thread to confirm that the team knew about it, but now temporary action has been taken to halt the exploit.
As posted on the official Dark Souls Twitter feed, the PvP servers for Dark Souls Remastered, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls 3 – with the first game’s Prepare To Die Edition joining soon – on PC have all “temporarily deactivated to allow the team to investigate recent reports of an issue with online services”.
PvP servers for Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls: Remastered have been temporarily deactivated to allow the team to investigate recent reports of an issue with online services.
Servers for Dark Souls: PtDE will join them shortly.We apologize for this inconvenience.
— Dark Souls (@DarkSoulsGame) January 23, 2022
Hopefully the servers will be back up soon, but it’s important that this issue gets sorted – especially if it could affect Elden Ring too, which may well be From Software’s “best game to date” according to director Hidetaka Miyazaki.