Dark Souls PC servers down amid hacking fears

Action role-playing game Dark Souls 3 has been taken offline following reports of an exploit that could allow bad actors to take control of your PC.

Publisher Bandai Namco and developer FromSoftware have turned off player-v-player (PvP) servers, meaning gamers cannot play competitively.

The downtime affects Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls: Remastered.

But the purported exploit cannot affect console gamers and as such PvP remains available on PlayStation and Xbox.

Though the servers being down reduces functionality, the game remains entirely playable without PvP.

Though the exact reason for the servers being taken down was not given, it follows a series of reports about a serious vulnerability found in the game's code that could allow a bad actor to run programs remotely on your PC.

The exploit came to prominence when it was apparently used to interrupt a Twitch streamer - crashing his game and purportedly running a text-to-speech program that criticised his ability at the game.

Microsoft PowerShell, a program used to run code on a computer, had then opened by itself in place of the game, the streamer said.

There is no indication when the servers will be put back online.

BBC News has approached Bandai Namco for comment.