BODY: FromSoftware's most anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive stumbled out of the gate this weekend. The studio behind Elden Ring and Bloodborne announced that the first network test for The Duskbloods โ its upcoming multiplayer action title โ was being cut short, ending earlier than the scheduled window after the game's servers failed to hold up.
The word came directly from FromSoftware's official X account at 8:42 a.m. Japan time, confirming that the test would wrap up ahead of plan. For players who had secured a slot in the limited trial, it was an abrupt end to what many had hoped would be an extended first taste of the game.
The Duskbloods is a full-on multiplayer action experience built around online play, which makes server stability the entire foundation of the product. That context makes a stumble like this both more understandable and more consequential: a network test exists precisely to stress infrastructure before launch, but a first-day collapse still reads as a rough headline.
FromSoftware has run pre-release network tests before โ most notably for Elden Ring and its Dark Souls remasters โ so the practice is routine. What's new here is the platform. The Duskbloods is a Switch 2 exclusive, meaning FromSoftware is validating its netcode against Nintendo's brand-new hardware and online backbone rather than the PlayStation and PC environments it knows best.
The insider take
From a Tokyo vantage point, a server meltdown on day one of a network test is closer to "working as intended" than "disaster" โ the entire point is to break things while the stakes are low. Japanese gaming coverage tends to treat these early-termination notices as unremarkable housekeeping, and FromSoftware's terse 8:42 a.m. post fits that pattern. The more interesting subtext is that this is the studio's first serious online proving ground on Switch 2 hardware, and expect additional test rounds before The Duskbloods locks a release date. A shaky first outing now buys smoother servers later.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).