Dark Souls II and III servers are back after a 12-day outage: what FromSoftware confirmed on November 11 and what to check before you go online again
Video: "Dark Souls III - Opening Cinematic Trailer | PS4, XB1, PC", official Bandai Namco Entertainment America YouTube channel. It is the game's opening cinematic trailer, not a video about the outage or the fix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zDZYrIUgKE
FromSoftware announced on November 11, 2026 that the game servers of Dark Souls II and Dark Souls III are restored on every platform, ending a suspension that started on October 30. Invasions, co-op summoning and messages depend on those servers. Here is what the official notices actually say (read November 12, 2026, Paris time), and a short checklist for going back online. The checklist is our own suggestion and has not been tested against the restored servers.
1. What FromSoftware confirmed
- November 11, 2026: the official Dark Souls series site says that, for Dark Souls II and Dark Souls III, "the investigation has been completed and the fix has been applied. The game server and online features are now restored." The notice apologizes for the inconvenience and thanks players for their patience (https://www.darksouls.jp/news/detail_261111_1.html).
- The Japanese-language notice states that the game servers of both titles are restored from that day on all platforms and that online services have resumed.
- The notice does not say at what hour the servers came back, and it does not describe the fix.
2. How the outage started
- The notice dated November 2, 2026 says the game servers of both titles were suspended on all platforms "due to identified security vulnerabilities", from Friday, October 30, 2026, 16:00 until further notice (https://www.darksouls.jp/news/detail_261102_1.html). The time zone is not stated on the page we read; it comes from the Japanese series site.
- During the suspension, online play was not possible; the notice states that offline play remained possible.
- Game*Spark (Japan, November 11) counts about 12 days of suspension and notes that the details of the problem were not disclosed.
3. What we still do not know
- Nature of the vulnerability: FromSoftware has only said it was a security issue with the game servers. PC Gamer (November 11) writes that the company has said nothing more about what went wrong. We do not know whether players had to change anything on their side, and the notice asks for nothing.
- Whether any patch to the games themselves is involved: the notices mention none, so we cannot say. Unconfirmed rumor: any precise explanation circulating online (type of flaw, hidden updates) is backed by no official source.
4. A short checklist before going back online (our suggestion, untested)
- Start the game, sign in to your platform's online service (PlayStation Network, Xbox network or Steam) and load your save.
- Check that messages, bloodstains and summon signs appear again, then try a co-op summon or an invasion if you play that way.
- If something does not work right away, check the official FromSoftware player support account and the Dark Souls series site before reinstalling anything: the notices ask for no action from players.
- On PC, restart Steam if online features still look unavailable. This is a general first step, not an official instruction for this outage.
5. Context from the press
- PC Gamer (November 11, 2026) says the outage lasted a little less than two weeks, across all platforms, and points out that Seamless Co-op mods for Dark Souls II and III, which run independently of FromSoftware's servers, offered another way to play with friends in the meantime.
- PC Gamer also recalls the 2022 shutdown of PC servers for several Dark Souls games, which lasted much longer; in that case FromSoftware had acknowledged a security vulnerability. The two events are different and nothing in the current notices links them.
- AUTOMATON (Japan, November 11) notes that both games still have thousands of players on Steam, as stated in its article.
6. Platforms
- The suspension and the restoration concern all platforms, according to the official notices. The notices do not list individual platforms or regions.
- We have not tested the servers on each platform: if you see a problem on a specific one, tell us below.
7. Sources and discussion
- Dark Souls series site (FromSoftware), "Game server restoration notice [DARK SOULS II | III]", November 11, 2026, read November 12, 2026: https://www.darksouls.jp/news/detail_261111_1.html
- Dark Souls series site (FromSoftware), "Notice of game server suspension [DARK SOULS II | III]", November 2, 2026, read November 12, 2026: https://www.darksouls.jp/news/detail_261102_1.html
- PC Gamer, Andy Chalk, "Dark Souls 2 and 3 multiplayer is back...", November 11, 2026: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/dark-souls/dark-souls-2-and-3-multiplayer-is-back-we-still-dont-know-what-went-wrong-but-at-least-it-didnt-take-almost-a-year-to-fix-it/
- Game*Spark (Japanese), November 11, 2026: https://www.gamespark.jp/article/2026/11/11/174747.html
- AUTOMATON (Japanese), November 11, 2026: https://automaton-media.com/articles/newsjp/20261111-478680/
- Video: Bandai Namco Entertainment America, "Dark Souls III - Opening Cinematic Trailer | PS4, XB1, PC" (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zDZYrIUgKE
- Image: Steam store page of Dark Souls III. © FromSoftware, Inc. / Bandai Namco Entertainment.
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