‘Elden Ring’ developer says it ‘necessary security measures’ as ‘Dark Souls’ servers remain offline until after the game’s launch

“Dark Souls” players have not had access to its PvP servers for weeks now, and Bandai Namco announced they will remain offline until after “Elden Ring” is released. As for the upcoming game, the developer assured fans that it has “necessary security measures” at launch.

For a bit of context, “Dark Souls” servers were temporarily taken down after someone who found a remote code execution (RCE) exploit demonstrated on a livestream how it could compromise players’ gameplay and hardware. A well-known modder later claimed that a different RCE vulnerability was found and reported to Bandai Namco years ago.

The publisher allegedly did not issue prompt responses and clarification if those vulnerabilities were fixed. The same source said the “Elden Ring” code during its closed network test last November showed the upcoming game could have the same security issues at launch.

FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have yet to address those claims. But a statement released on Wednesday assured fans there are no major security risks in playing “Elden Ring” once it launches later this month.

“We have extended the investigation to Elden Ring – our upcoming title launching on February 25th – and have made sure the necessary security measures are in place for this title on all target platforms,” the statement reads.

As for the “Dark Souls” servers' availability, Bandai Namco told players they will have to wait a few more weeks to gain access to the games. The publisher said the game’s online features on PC will remain unavailable until after “Elden Ring” launches, citing “the time required to set up proper testing environments.”

“Elden Ring” was originally planned to launch last month, but FromSoftware and Bandai Namco later announced its delay to Feb. 25. In a recent interview with GamesRadar, creative director Hidetaka Miyazaki offered more insight into what ultimately led to the release date adjustment. When asked what convinced them to move the launch, Miyazaki said, “The level of freedom that we wanted to ultimately achieve in Elden Ring exceeded what we were initially planning for.”

Miyazaki added that their vision for the “Elden Ring” gameplay experience has made the development more complex. It then led to needing more time for debugging and QA efforts. The good news now is the upcoming dark fantasy RPG appears to be all set to launch on its current schedule.