Dark Souls 2 Australian, New Zealand online play coming later today

Dark Souls 2 launched in Australia and New Zealand yesterday, but as you may have noticed online features are not yet available.

Namco Bandai told CVG that online features - including multiplayer, messaging, stats, and ghosts - will not be available to Australians and New Zealanders until Dark Souls 2 officially launches in Europe.

"The Dark Souls 2 servers for PSN and XBL are due to be live late tonight Australian time," a representative said.

"The developers have been making last minute adjustments and the live date has been pushed back to coincide with the European launch of March 14 (UK time). We apologise for the inconvenience."

Update
A later Tweet from Namco Bandai Australia suggests players may be able to get online early, although they might not find the experience particularly stable.

"You can now connect to the Dark Souls 2 servers. Testing is still ongoing so issues may occur throughout the day. Praise the Sun," the publisher said.

Australia and New Zealand generally fall under the managerial remit of the European arm of multi-national publishers because both nations used the PAL TV standard, whereas North America uses NTSC, like Japan. As a result, local release dates tend to line up more closely with European launched than the North American equivalents, and antipodean gamers often have to make do with European multiplayer servers.

Dark Souls 2's reviews are universally strong. Dave's been playing Dark Souls 2, and has been posting diary entries of his adventures.

The PC version of Dark Souls 2 is due at the end of April. If yu're playing on console, check out our Dark Souls 2 guide and walktrhough.