Bandai Namco blocks access to Durante's Dark Souls PC mod

UPDATE: Unconfirmed reports indicate this was a mistake on Bandai Namco's part.

A user on NeoGAF reports FDS File Defense Service, which was hired by Bandai Namco's US arm to remove Dark Souls debug mode patches from the internet, did indeed have Durante's DSFix mod blocked - but it was "not part of the plan".

Apparently FDS is having a conversation with Bandai Namco and Dropbox now about reinstating access to the mod.

We're still waiting on Bandai Namco to respond.

ORIGINAL STORY: Publisher Bandai Namco has had access to Durante's popular Dark Souls PC mod blocked.

Durante had released the mod, called DSFix, back in 2012 in a bid to fix the game's resolution. Eyebrows were raised when Digital Foundry discovered the game's shoddy PC port to be locked at 1024x720, offering no improvement over its console brethren.

The download includes a .dll file to place within the game's directory on your PC, and a text file in which you can alter the resolution at will.

Now, posting on video game forum NeoGAF, Durante published an email he had been sent by Dropbox notifying him that Bandai Namco had filed a complaint under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and access to DSFix 2.3 had been blocked.

As you can imagine, he reacted angrily.

"This is utter bullshit of course," he said, "especially since DSfix does not include any of their material.

"I'm actually amazed that they would do this. I mean WTF."

Bandai Namco's move comes as a surprise because of the popularity of Durante's Dark Souls mod. The superstar modder repeated the trick for Dark Souls 2's PC release earlier this year, releasing a mod that adds downsampling and texture modding.

So what's going on? Some have suggested an automated search went after sites distributing Dark Souls' debug.exe and DSFix was flagged as part of that process.

"Let's hope so," Durante said. "I seriously cannot imagine any other reason which is remotely sane.

"I mean, even by corporate publisher standards of sanity."

He doesn't seem keen on taking legal action against Bandai Namco: "I don't know if I could, but I certainly won't. There's nothing in it for me."

And Durante insisted DSFix does not remove or replace content of the game.

"No," he said. "The most they could claim is the texture it includes to add the 'Dsfix enabled' line to the startup screen. Which I now removed from DSfix 2.3.1.

"Let's see what happens. None of the code is based on anything in Dark Souls in any way, shape or form."

Eurogamer has contacted Bandai Namco for comment and will update if it chooses to respond.