And just like that, the Dark Souls 3 PC servers are back online

Update 9/24/22: As reported by GamesRadar, Dark Souls 3's PC servers are now back up and running, though FromSoftware did not announce the change or clarify what went wrong. Servers for the other two Dark Souls games remain offline, with no roadmap of when they might come back.

Original Story: After seven months of silence, Darks Souls 3 PvP servers on PC finally roared back to life at the end of August. It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't last long, because a month later they're offline again.

Complaints about the gone-again servers began to appear on Steam yesterday, as players complained that they couldn't connect to servers, or in some cases launch the game at all. The problem appeared suddenly and was clearly widespread, but there was no indication about what had happened. The most recent announcement about Dark Souls 3 on Steam was posted in August, announcing the reactivation of servers.

A purported FromSoft player support message posted to Reddit yesterday acknowledged that Dark Souls 3 players on Steam were having problems logging into game servers, and promised that the matter was being investigated. For now though, the servers remain offline, and the problem was made public a few hours ago via the official Dark Souls 3 Twitter account, suggesting that another extended wait could be coming.

“At this time, there is a confirmed issue with Dark Souls 3 online play via the Steam platform,” the message states. “We are investigating the source of the problem and will inform you as soon as more details become available. Thank you for your patience.”

The PC servers for all Dark Souls games went offline in January because of a security vulnerability that enabled malicious code to be run through their online functionality. The problem went unaddressed for months because FromSoft was dealing with the obvious priority of Elden Ring. But now we're pushing the end of September, Dark Souls 1 and 2 remain offline, and Dark Souls 3 couldn't even make it a month before running into more problems—and fans are understandably frustrated.

• “Here we go again. See you in eight months guys.”
• “It’s a real shame. The games are so lonely without player messages and bloodstains. I’ve been doing my yearly series replay and it’s just so much quieter and sadder than usual.”
• “You’ve got to be kidding me; the PC side of Fromsoft is an absolute clown show. It’s been like that ever since they put that awful DS1 PC port out. They really don’t give a rat’s ass about their PC crowd do they?”
• “Aaahhhh shit here we go again”

Bandai Namco declined to comment on the issue further, so for now there's nothing for Dark Souls players to do but hope that it doesn't take another eight months to fix this time around. In the meantime, if you're feeling lost and lonely in the world of Dark Souls 3, there's an Official-Unofficial Server for Dark Souls 3 mod that might help ease the pain.