Today marks the 5-month anniversary of Bandai Namco and Fromsoftware taking down the Dark Souls PC servers. On that fateful date of January 24th, 2022 (ok, it was actually the 23rd), a very nasty exploit was made known to the Dark Souls community, the RCE exploit. I won’t go into what it is again, but you can read about it here. Since then, the Dark Souls PC servers, which means for Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3, have all been offline. Sadly, in the process, ripping away both the enjoyable coop PVE and the soul-sucking but also fun PVP components from the game. I mean, Dark Souls isn’t Dark Souls without invasions. I’ll fight that battle until I turn hollow.
But what’s been happening since this occurred? Well, nothing. Not one damned thing. I’m trying to be calm while approaching this matter, but after 5-months, it’s been pretty hard to stay neutral. Given that correcting this difficult exploit likely requires a vast amount of resources and time. So I wanted to give Bamco and Fromsoftware the benefit here. However, after countless days that turned into weeks that turned into months, I’ve given up.
Bamco has done nothing but provide false hopes that the PC versions of Dark Souls are being patched. From the only update that the Dark Souls community received on February 9th, 2022, to tossing out “scripted” replies to those who ended up believing the lies. Even PC Gamer was victim to the lies and, despite better judgment, posted a hopeful article stating the servers were coming back. Sure, Jan! I’ll believe it when they’re back. And I’ve had enough of it. Sure, this is just about a game, but you are at a gaming and geek culture outlet. What else am I going to be talking about?
#DarkSouls pic.twitter.com/ZRhX9OcvQe
— Dark Souls (@DarkSoulsGame) February 9, 2022
While the community hasn’t been completely wiped out, the faith is lacking. Some have resorted to hosting private Dark Souls 3 servers, and I’m happy for those folks. At least with the private Dark Souls 3 servers, at least some people can still play with the online features, as the game was intended. However, not everyone is a fan of those servers, myself included, as there’s no protection such as the Blue Sentinel mod that can stop or at least stall hackers or script kiddies who just want to make people suffer. So, yes, I know about the private servers, but I’ll pass — thanks. Sadly, I’m not alone in this thought. But if the thought of playing on what can be the equivalent of the Dark Souls Wild West, then go for it.
Even now, people on Steam have been leaving negative reviews for all three Dark Souls PC games due to the servers being offline. Those negative reviews have been piling up for the past few months and I suspect they won’t stop. Though, I also suspect that Bamco doesn’t care about it either. I’d love for them to prove me wrong.
So, what’s next? Well, that’s a great question and one I don’t have an answer for. Bamco has yet to reply to the hundreds of emails I’ve sent them. My PR contacts have already told me to stop harassing them. And I grow ever more depressed when I fire up Dark Souls on PC, despite knowing the servers are down. Though, I keep hoping that one day the servers will spring to life, and it will be like Christmas day when I was a child all over again. For now, I’ve gone back to playing Dark Souls on the consoles.
Thankfully, the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S copies have a better experience than the past-gen consoles did. I’m not thrilled that I have to recreate my characters, farm all the equipment I’ve found over the years, and find new people to play with. But at least I’m playing the games that have given me hours of fun and frustration. You’d think that after 4+ years that I’d be over Dark Souls. Nope, it’s a game that will continue to call me back, no matter what. I mean, there’s a reason why I have clocked over 1500 hours played on the Dark Souls PC games. No, I’m not addicted… I swear.
Maybe the servers will be back, but at this point, I’m doubtful. There’s little reason for Bamco to bring them back. Elden Ring is going well for them, and a new update is in the works. It’s likely that Dark Souls has run its course in their eyes. It’s not like the game is unplayable on the PC, but it’s also not going to be as accessible as it was in the past, thanks to coop being unavailable. Maybe I should stop caring. Maybe it’s time to move on. Who’s to say. But in any event, this anniversary sucks.
