FromSoftware's first Network Test for The Duskbloods was meant to give a select group of players their first real hands-on time with the studio's Nintendo Switch 2 multiplayer game. What it actually became was a test of whether anyone could log in at all.
Players trying to get into the session on August 21 kept hitting a "Failed to log in to The Duskbloods game server" message, and repeated attempts didn't change the outcome. The problems dragged on for close to two hours before FromSoftware pulled the plug on the session entirely.
FromSoftware Confirms the Issue and Ends the Session
FromSoftware addressed the problem directly in a statement posted to X, apologizing to the players who had been waiting to try the test and confirming that the day's session was over.
The studio said it would keep working on improving the servers and promised to share future test schedules later. It stopped short of saying anything about the remaining sessions being cancelled or delayed.
Server Stress Was the Whole Point of This Test
What makes today's failure sting a bit more is that FromSoftware had already laid out exactly what this Network Test was supposed to accomplish, and server performance under load was near the top of that list.
One of the stated goals was a game server load test, checking how the infrastructure holds up when a large number of players connect at the same time. The studio also wanted to catch problems that show up specifically when many players log in from different network environments at once.
So the servers being pushed hard wasn't an accident or a side effect. It was the reason the test existed in the first place, and on the very first session, the server issues prevented many players from getting anywhere near the game itself.
That doesn't automatically mean The Duskbloods is in trouble. Running a closed test before launch exists precisely so studios can catch this kind of failure while there's still time to fix it. The real question now is how quickly FromSoftware can pin down the cause and whether the remaining sessions can go ahead once changes are made.
A Short Testing Window Just Got Shorter
The timing makes this especially frustrating for the players who were selected. The full Network Test is split across five sessions of four hours each, running between August 21 and August 23, so each individual window was already limited.
Instead of spending that time in the game, a lot of participants spent it repeatedly trying to log in. FromSoftware eventually decided pushing forward wasn't worth it and closed the session for the day, without offering a replacement time slot.
The wording in the studio's statement is worth paying attention to here. FromSoftware hasn't said The Duskbloods is delayed, and it hasn't explicitly cancelled the entire Network Test either. For now, the studio has only confirmed that today's session is closed, with future scheduling details to come.
Why the Stakes Are Higher for a PvPvE Game
Server trouble is annoying for any online game, but it carries more weight for The Duskbloods because multiplayer sits at the center of what the game is trying to do, not on top of it.
The Duskbloods is built around PvPvE combat, where players fight each other while also dealing with enemies and other threats in the environment around them. None of that works if players can't reliably connect, stay connected, and interact with each other in real time.
Seen that way, today's login failures are a useful early warning rather than proof that anything is fundamentally wrong. Catching this now, with a closed group of testers instead of a full launch audience, is exactly what a Network Test is for.
What Happens Next Is the Real Test
FromSoftware now has a server-side problem to investigate before the next session. What happens over the next few days will say a lot more about the game's health than today's outage did.
If the studio can figure out what went wrong, add capacity where it's needed, and get the next session running without the same login errors, this week's problems end up as a rough start that got fixed in time. If the same errors show up again in session two, that's a different and more concerning story.
For now, there's no reason to assume the worst. The first Duskbloods Network Test session failed to get off the ground, but finding that out now, before launch, is the whole reason FromSoftware runs these tests. The servers got tested. They just didn't pass, and now FromSoftware has to figure out what changes before the next session.
Respawnerz will update this story once FromSoftware announces the next Network Test schedule. The Duskbloods is currently set to launch for Nintendo Switch 2 sometime in 2026.
