There are certainties in life: death, taxes, and the servers being shut down for your Soulslike. Unfortunately for Dark Souls II players on PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, From Software will be shutting down those servers in the new year on March 31.
The developer made the announcement late last week on their official site. “As of Sunday 31st March 2024, online services for Dark Souls II (PS3, Xbox 360) will be terminated due to deterioration of the game servers.” As a result, asynchronous online elements including shades, bloodstains and messages will no longer function. The bigger news is that the multiplayer elements such as co-op play, invasions and dueling will also cease to function.
For Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players, you don’t need to worry, as those servers will remain active.
It’s not the first time that fans of the developer’s Soulslike games have had the servers shut down. Atlus shut down the original Demon’s Souls PlayStation 3 servers back in 2018 (though thanks to emulation, fans are able to have some semblance of functionality), while Namco Bandai had the original Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition servers shut down last year in favour of the remastered version of the game.
Meanwhile, modern Soulslike fans will be waiting on news from From Software regarding the upcoming “Shadow of the Erdtree” Expansion for Elden Ring in the new year, with a rumoured February release.