Sorry Elden Ring sickos, the Nightreign network test only lets you play for a few short hours a day

Elden Ring Nightreign's first network test is going live next month, but you'll only be able to play for three hours a day on most of its available days, unfortunately for the sickos who want to grind and maybe get bullied by infamously hard Dark Souls bosses well into the night.

Applications for Elden Ring Nightreign's network test open today at 6am PST, 9am EST, 3pm CET, and 2pm GMT on FromSoftware's official website, though it'll only be available for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S console players, unlike the full game which is also coming to PC. 

"The network test is a preliminary verification test in which the selected testers play a portion of the game prior to the full game launch," the website explains. "Various technical verifications of online systems will be examined by conducting large-scale network load tests."

Over on social media, the studio said the tests would run for three hours a day on most days between February 14 and February 17 - probably a blessing for anyone with Valentine's Day plans. You can see kickoff times for some English-speaking time zones in the post embedded above. Most territories luckily get two three-hour play sessions in the same 24-hour period due to weird time zone shenanigans, though everyone will still only get to play for 15 hours in total next month, unless FromSoft decides to be extra nice and open up a couple more sessions for us.

For anyone not in the know, Elden Ring Nightreign is the hit open-world game's co-op spin-off, which sees you venture into The Lands Between on your lonesome or with a three-play squad to tackle missions that last three in-game days and roughly 40 real-world minutes. While daylight is out, your goal is to take down baddies in search of better loot, all to prepare for the inevitably gruelling bosses that show up at sundown.

Elden Ring Nightreign is saying goodbye to FromSoftware’s classic messaging system.