Last week we reported that Game of the Year Baldur’s Gate 3’s surprise arrival on the Xbox had delighted many, and then rapidly upset them all as players started to lose hours of progress due to a bug with the save game feature that corrupted the file at any time. leaving players needing to restart the adventure from scratch.
Microsoft and Larian Studios worked together to quickly release a fix and told players they would need to manually update their consoles as well and part of the solution was a firmware update to the Xbox itself (via Eurogamer).
The issue appeared to resolve around the save game failing to upload to Microsoft’s cloud save feature, but the speedy console-level fix was a sign of how important BG3 is seen by all parties.
So far, so good, except the firmware update may not have fixed the problem. Players are still reporting losing save progress and now Xbox Support has issued advice in a post on X detailing a procedure to go through to minimize the risk of a catastrophic loss to your save data.
The advisory reads, “Xbox is aware of a problem that can cause players to lose saved progress in Baldur’s Gate 3. In order to avoid this issue players should save their game and then return to the Xbox dashboard and select “Quit Game” or “Save to Quick Resume” from the game menu (Home, Game, Select, and then choose “Save to Quick Resume” or “Quit”) when they finish playing. Users should not disconnect their console from the power.
Xbox is aware of a problem that can cause players to lose saved progress in Baldur’s Gate 3. In order to avoid this issue players should save their game and then return to the Xbox dashboard and select “Quit Game” or “Save to Quick Resume” from the game menu (Home, Game, Select,…
— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) December 12, 2023
“Users should select “shut down” from the console menu and leave their Xbox connected to power. We are working to fix this ASAP.”
Do we have a Plan B?
It seems unlikely that the problem arises totally from players disconnecting their consoles from the mains immediately after stopping play, although it is possible that some habits included flicking off the power at the end of gaming sessions. It reads as though, even after the shutdown, the Xbox might not have finished doing everything it needs to do which is interesting.
Hopefully, the next stage of the final fix will be pushed to consoles soon but it does look like it will be coming from Microsoft rather than a simple hotfix to the game itself.
