The Duskbloods network test is live, but spots are limited

The Duskbloods just went from “mystery Switch 2 game” to “thing you can actually sign up for.”

FromSoftware opened registrations for the closed network test today. Link your Nintendo account, wait until Aug. 7 to find out if you got picked, and if you’re lucky, you’ll be playing between Aug. 21 and 24. Not everyone who signs up gets in, so don’t get too excited yet.

A different kind of FromSoftware game

The real story here isn’t the sign-up window, though. It’s what The Duskbloods actually asks you to do. The official description talks about battles with up to eight players, “transient alliances,” and fighting for something called First Blood. Translation: this is PvEvP. You’re fighting monsters and other players at the same time, in the same match. That’s closer to an extraction shooter than anything From Software has made before.

That’s a big shift. Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, all of them let you play solo if you wanted. Multiplayer was there, but it was optional. Duskbloods sounds built around forcing that interaction, not offering it as a bonus. Whether that works for a fanbase used to playing alone is genuinely an open question.

It’s also worth remembering this is a Switch 2 exclusive. That already shrinks the audience compared to something like Elden Ring, which landed on every platform under the sun. Combine that with a multiplayer-first design, and From Software is aiming at a much smaller, more specific crowd than usual.

You can sign up on the official site right now. Whether you get in is down to luck. Whether the game’s any good comes down to four days in August.

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