FromSoftware has announced that the PC servers for Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition have been taken offline permanently, though the Remastered version will still be restored.
Also confirming that Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin’s PC servers are back online after ten months, FromSoftware said in a tweet (below) that the infrastructure of the original Dark Souls is simply too old to be supported at this point.
“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,” it said. “We apologize for the long wait and ask for your understanding in this matter.”
The Prepare to Die Edition was the original PC release for the game, launching almost a year after the original console editions.
Our sincere thanks to the people who have been playing Dark Souls since its launch.
— Dark Souls (@DarkSoulsGame) October 25, 2022
Dark Souls: Remastered will work again eventually, though it’s still unclear when exactly FromSoftware will restore its servers after a serious exploit – which allowed other players to take over the user’s PC – led to all three games being taken offline in January.
FromSoftware has released incremental updates ever since and restored the Dark Souls 3 servers in August. Now that the Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin’s servers are back online, FromSoftware’s attention should turn to restoring Dark Souls: Remastered, though it’s unclear if it will focus on this or the base version of Dark Souls 2 first.
Work on the restoration of online services for the PC version of Dark Souls Remastered is still underway, and we will inform you when they return.
Your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated.
— Dark Souls (@DarkSoulsGame) October 25, 2022
As the original exploit arose just a month before the developer released Elden Ring, fans looking forward to the game were worried it would affect its multiplayer components. Thankfully, however, Elden Ring was able to launch without major issues and became an incredible success.
It did have to deal with a few hacking issues though, after an infamous Dark Souls hacker appeared in Elden Ring and forced illegal items into players’ inventories, causing them to be banned. Even weirder, the game’s secret underwear was also being used by trolls to get other players banned.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.