This morning, FromSoftware conducted its first closed Network Test for The Duskbloods, its very unusual vampire-themed PvPvE game coming to Nintendo Switch 2 before the end of the year. The test was meant to begin pretty early in the morning for those of us in the U.S.: for me, 5 a.m. to be specific. I got up, put on some coffee, plopped on the couch with my cats and partner, and hopped on a Discord call with the third member of our usual Elden Ring Nightreign trio, eager to try the game out.
An hour later, the three of us were playing Nightreign. This was because the test was, I assume, a complete success for FromSoftware, in that its network test did in fact test the network. And it learned that the online servers do not currently work.
For several hours after the network test was intended to begin, absolutely 0 people could get into it. Everyone who tried was just met with a “Failed to log in to The Duskbloods game server. Select ‘OK’ to attempt to log in again” error message. Selecting “OK” just set the screen to load for a minute or two before delivering a repeat of the same message. After almost two hours of this, FromSoftware seems to have given up, posting the following to its X account:
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to those who were waiting for the first The Duskbloods network test due to game server issues. We regret to inform you that today’s session is now closed. We will continue to work on improving the servers and will announce…
— FROMSOFTWARE (@fromsoftware_pr) August 21, 2026
“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to those who were waiting for the first The Duskbloods network test due to game server issues,” it reads. “We regret to inform you that today’s session is now closed. We will continue to work on improving the servers and will announce future schedules at a later date.”
This is actually a confusing message, as there is already another network test window scheduled for later tonight, and more over the weekend. Does this mean that tonight’s test is also off? Will the studio be adding more sessions? There’s no reason to expect them to do so: this is not some early access thing we all bought into. The purpose was to test online play with a ton of people at once, and that purpose was, I suppose, served one way or another.
Personally, I’m hoping to get some Duskbloods in later this weekend, but the game’s coming sometime this year, so even if the whole thing is called off it’s not the end of the world. I hope this is an easily fixable fluke on From’s or Nintendo’s end rather than an indicator of online horrors to come, though. FromSoftware hasn’t really attempted an online game quite like The Duskbloods before, and while Elden Ring Nightreign works great, it was not without its own share of server issues there for a while. Nintendo, meanwhile, has made amazing online play before in the form of the Splatoon series, and then somehow managed to bork it in just about every other game. So who knows how this will go?
As for me, my trio got further on the final DLC boss run of Nightreign than we ever had before. I didn’t realize the secret to Nightreign was to wake up at 5 a.m., but sure, why not? Thanks for the network test, FromSoftware. I had a great time playing one of your games today.