After roughly seven months of inactivity, From Software has finally reactivated the online features for Dark Souls III on PC. This includes all of the signature aspects that we’ve come to know from the franchise, especially the PvP and PvE servers where you can enter another player’s game and assist, or ruin, their run and through their playthrough. The reactivation comes after From Software discovered that there was a major security vulnerability in the game’s code back in January which subsequently caused the online features to all be shut down.
The main online features that have been absent include the infamous invasions, summoning help from others, soapstone messages that are left behind by other players, usually with trolling intent. From Software also revealed that they were currently working on getting the online PC features back up for their other mainline entries, Dark Souls and Dark Souls II, which were also affected by the deactivation. This security vulnerability was discovered by well-known SoulsBorne enthusiast SkeleMann, who reported that it allowed exploiters the ability to gain low-level access to the person’s PC and obtain sensitive information, run programs without consent, or just completely brick the system altogether.
It’s a good thing that From Software was able to fix this major break too, as many in the fan base were worried that they might just scrap the features altogether and shut down the online servers. The timing of this discovery was also an ill-timed one as it occurred just before the developer’s newest IP, Elden Ring, was released worldwide. As we now know, Elden Ring is arguable the most successful title of 2022 thus far, as it has already shipped more than 16.6 million units in less than six months. From Software more than likely needed to devote more time to Elden Ring’s quality of life maintenance and content before focusing on the online aspects of Dark Souls III on PC. Now that the issue has been resolved, they’ll tackle the same for Dark Souls and Dark Souls II. Hopefully, it won’t take more than half a year to fix them.