‘Dark Souls’ Fans Fear Multiplayer May Have Been Permanently Removed Over Exploit

Dark Souls walked so that Elden Ring could run. FromSoftware’s 2011 RPG is often hailed as one of the greatest video games of all time, and it’s a game only enhanced by the online multiplayer co-op mode. While some prefer to walk Dark Souls’ perilous trails alone, others prefer a helping hand and hey, there’s no shame in that.

While in human form, players can summon up to three friends to aid them on their journey although there is one catch - communication. With nothing but a few simple gestures and pre-typed phrases to communicate, your friends could be pretty useless. If players are really unlucky, they could be raided during co-op mode by those seeking to kill, and restore their humanity. Moral of the story is, co-op is chaotic, but we love it.

Take a look at these Dark Souls funny wins and epic fails below.

Sadly, it seems those golden days are over. As spotted by The Outerhaven, Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition, Dark Souls Remastered, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls 3 are all now listed as single-player games on Steam. References to these titles’ various co-op modes still exist within product descriptions - including the “online matchmaking system” which offers “cooperative and competitive play” - but given the re-categorisation of these games from multiplayer to single-player, that could be an oversight yet to be addressed.

It follows Dark Souls’ servers going down earlier this year following a security exploit. If you cast your mind back to January, FromSoftware and publisher Bandai Namco pulled servers for Dark Souls: Remastered, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls 3 to “allow the team to investigate recent reports of an issue with online services,” later confirming that co-op play would not return until after the release of Elden Ring.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Elden Ring has now been out a number of weeks and there’s still no word on Dark Souls’ servers ever returning. Perhaps FromSoftware are simply hoping everyone is so distracted trying to best the Elden Beast to notice.