The first Dark Souls PC port has gone offline permanently

The Prepare To Die Edition of Dark Souls isn’t ever going back online, sadly.

It’s been a long, hard road getting the PC servers for Dark Souls up and running again. After a nasty security exploit took multiplayer features offline for the trilogy, developer FromSoftware has slowly restored online functionality for all three games. Unfortunately, the Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition will stay offline forever.

“We have determined that we will not be able to support online services for the PC version of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition that was released in 2012 due to an aging system,” FromSoftware said on Tuesday via Twitter. “We apologize for the long wait and ask for your understanding in this matter.”

It’s a shame, honestly. Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition initially came to PC in 2012 after persistent fan campaigning — which is now arguably the most popular platform for FromSoftware’s action RPGs. Elden Ring‘s concurrent player numbers were astonishing.

Thankfully, the Dark Souls: Remastered servers will go back online. There’s no firm restoration date yet, but FromSoftware claims it’ll let fans know once the necessary safeguards are in place. While this version of Dark Souls looks and performs better than the old Prepare to Die Edition, many people don’t like its aesthetic changes. Boss fog doors, for example, are bizarrely glossy.

If nothing else, as least both versions of Dark Souls 2 are going back online.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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