Bandai Namco and FromSoftware have announced that the PvP servers for Dark Souls: Remastered, Dark Souls II, and Dark Souls III have been taken down on PC. This was revealed by the official Dark Souls Twitter account, and the official reason provided for the downtime is “to allow the team to investigate recent reports of an issue with online services.” Video Games Chronicle believes those reports relate to a newly-discovered RCE (Remote Control Execution) exploit that allows users to gain remote access to your computer, run code, and gain private information from the individual, or do lasting harm to their computer.
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This exploit would be enough cause for concern, but fans believe that the exploit could be possible in Elden Ring as well, since the engines of the games are similar. It seems that only a handful of people know how to execute the exploit at this time, and they have apparently attempted to contact FromSoftware about the issue, finding little success. That might have changed during a Twitch stream by The__Grim__Sleeper on Saturday. One of these people apparently used the exploit during the stream to take over the computer, running Windows Powershell. The act was apparently not meant to be malicious, but was meant to showcase the exploit’s power.
Hopefully, when the servers for these games do return, the exploit will be fixed, so fans won’t have to worry about future issues. The exploit only exists in the PC versions, and FromSoftare has confirmed that the server downtime won’t have an impact on console players. Given how much hype there has been surrounding Elden Ring, it would be a good thing to have this exploit fixed ahead of the game’s launch next month.
Unfortunately, Dark Souls fans on PC will just have to wait patiently for the servers to be reinstated! While server downtime can always be a cause for frustration, it seems like this is a case where it’s important for the safety of the player base.
Are you disappointed by the server downtime? Were you watching The_Grim_Sleeper’s stream when the exploit occurred? Let us know in the comments or share directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
