Namco “Seeking Avenues” for Dark Souls PC Online Mode After GfWL Shutdown

You’re probably aware of Games for Windows Live’s planned July 1st shutdown, and that the original Dark Souls’ PC version relied on the service for its online play mode. Through their official Tumblr blog, the folks at publisher Namco Bandai have made clear that the game will remain functional on the service in the near future, but also that they’re looking for “avenues” to support the game’s online mode past the shutdown:

With the release of Dark Souls II, many players have been asking questions about the continued support of Dark Souls I. We thoroughly appreciate the dedicated fans who are adventuring through Lordran (maybe for the first time!) and we’d like to clarify a few points:

1. Dark Souls will remain fully functional on GFWL for the foreseeable future.
2. BANDAI NAMCO Games is currently seeking avenues to continue support and ensure the functionality of Dark Souls on other services. We will have more news and updates to share on this in the coming months.

Considering the sequel is a Steamworks title, I’d expect that would be the natural “avenue” for the original too, but I’m not sure how that might work for non-Steam copies. Either way, we’ll see what happens and keep you informed.