Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Dark Souls Remastered PC servers are back online for the first time since January

Bandai Namco Entertainment and FromSoftware have finally restored online functionality for Dark Souls Remastered on PC today. The game’s PC servers have been offline since January of this year when a dangerous exploit was discovered.

The PC versions of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition, Dark Souls Remastered, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls 3 had a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability, which in the worst cases could potentially allow someone to take control of another Dark Souls player’s PC. To prevent that from happening, Bandai Namco and FromSoftware shut down online servers for all four games on January 23. A statement a couple of weeks later claimed that “online services for the Dark Souls series on PC will not resume until after the release of Elden Ring,” but the wait ended up being much longer than expected.

Recommended Videos

Dark Souls 3 servers weren’t back online until August, over seven months after the initial shutdown, while Dark Souls 2’s online functionality wasn’t restored until October. Now, Dark Souls Remastered‘s online features are finally live again, so PC players can leave messages, summon their friends, or invade other players’ worlds again. Unfortunately, one version of the original Dark Souls on PC won’t get its online features back. 

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Online features for the PC version of #DarkSouls: Remastered have been reactivated.

Thank you once again for your patience, understanding, and support. pic.twitter.com/IZ8lsfx3Tx

— Dark Souls (@DarkSoulsGame) November 9, 2022

In October, Bandai Namco Entertainment and FromSoftware confirmed that online functionality for Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition (the original PC release) will never be restored. “We have determined that we will not be able to support online services for the PC version of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition that was released in 2012, due to an aging system,” a tweet explains. “We apologize for the long wait and ask for your understanding in this matter. Our sincere thanks to the people who have been playing Dark Souls since its launch.”

Regardless, Dark Souls fans can take solace in the fact that the wait is finally over, and versions of all 3 Dark Souls games can be played online on PC again. 

Tomas Franzese
As a Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
Elden Ring brings me back to the era of game forums
Elden Ring character looking at the open-world of the game with a giant glowing tree in the background.

With FromSoftware’s latest release, Elden Ring, more gamers than ever have been venturing to the world of Dark Souls (in everything but name). While the trial and tribulation-based gameplay hasn’t been for everyone in the past, Elden Ring quickly became a mainstream success, smashing the sales of previous Souls games in mere days. With so many people playing and countless stories about how each is approaching it, Elden Ring has unlocked memories of an olden time where gaming secrets were found via word of mouth and the name of the game was constant discovery.

ELDEN RING – Overview Trailer
Sharing secrets
Unlike past Souls titles, Elden Ring has taken a huge page from the book of open-world games -- more specifically, a critically acclaimed hit you may have heard of called The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Like Zelda, Elden Ring throws players into its world and gives them free rein to play exactly the way they want. There is no set road and no rules of advancement besides going into different areas and defeating the main bosses, but the way you get to those objectives is entirely up to the individual player.

Read more
Where to find Ashes of War in Elden Ring
Player stands by a tall Erdtree in Elden Ring.

Elden Ring took several features from the Souls series and combined them into a masterpiece. Ashes of War are one such mechanic, as they work similarly to weapon arts from Dark Souls 3. While there are a few minor differences, both mechanics give your weapons special attacks and abilities to aid you in battle. So, where do you find more Ashes of War in Elden Ring, how do you swap them out, and how can you duplicate your favorite Ashes?
See more

Is Elden Ring cross-platform?
The best starting Keepsakes in Elden Ring
How to play Elden Ring with friends

Read more
Dark Souls PC servers will be down until Elden Ring launches
A player posing in a multiplayer Dark Souls 3 session.

Anyone playing the Dark Souls games on PC won't be able to access any multiplayer features until after Elden Ring launches, according to a joint statement from FromSoftware and Bandai Namco.

https://twitter.com/DarkSoulsGame/status/1491411609499353088

Read more