The Duskbloods Closed Network Test Officially Goes Live On August 21

We don’t know much about FromSoftware’s upcoming Switch 2 exclusive, The Duskbloods, other than it being another experimental multiplayer outing in the vein of Nightreign, returning to the Lovecraftian vibes of Bloodborne—but with vampires. That all changes next month.

The studio just announced on the game’s official X account that the closed network test will go live next month, with applications opening from July 22 at 4pm CEST until July 28 at 3:59pm CEST.

“A network test involves using a pre-release version of the game to test performance prior to the commencement of service,” FromSoftware explained. “We plan to conduct large-scale network load tests to check different technical aspects of the game’s online systems.”

What To Expect From The Closed Network Test

Select applicants will be chosen on August 7 at 3pm CEST to take part in the closed network test, which will go live on August 21 until August 24 during set times, which you can see in the post embedded above.

To be eligible, you must own a Nintendo Switch 2 and a Nintendo Switch Online membership. If selected, you will be sent a download code to use on the eShop, with preloads going live on August 18 at 3pm CEST.

While details on The Duskbloods are scarce right now, the game is directed by Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and Dark Souls legend Hidetaka Miyazaki. It's a PvPvE experience with matches of up to eight players where you are pit against one another in a fight for the First Blood, though you can summon entities to help fight alongside you.

The trailers show gothic European-inspired cities, industrial railways and vehicles, and vampire creatures known as The Bloodsworn—but it’s hard to piece together what exactly we’re looking at in terms of locations and enemies without context. Thankfully, things will become much clearer in August.

The Duskbloods screenshot of a character floating up to a winged moon creature.

Otherwise, the rest of the announcement is boilerplate stuff. FromSoftware warns that “bugs may occur during gameplay." After all, this is a network test—not a demo. The goal is to stress test the servers, ensure that multiplayer functions as intended, and that things are fairly balanced, much like previous FromSoftware CNTs.

We don’t have a release date yet—just a vague 2026 window—but for a rough idea of when to expect the game, Elden Ring Nightreign held a closed network test in February 2025, and launched later that year in May.