A couple of days ago, Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios pushed out a small update for the Xbox version of the game with the aim of addressing the ongoing – and rather frustrating – BG3 save game bug. While this minor patch is attacking the frequency of the issue itself, it’s far from a permanent fix and your save game data is still at risk every time you play. Thankfully, Larian Studios is working closely with Microsoft to deliver a more permanent fix – you might just need to stop playing BG3 for a few days while we wait for it to arrive.
Larian Studios’ Game of the Year-winning Baldur’s Gate 3 is without a doubt one of the best RPG games of the year and one of several new Xbox games everyone should give a go when they get the chance. Although, saying that, you’re actually going to want to wait before you check it out – you might just lose all your progress if you do.
Since the Baldur’s Gate 3 Xbox release date, players enjoying this RPG on both Xbox Series X consoles and Xbox Series S have been falling victim to an unavoidable save game bug that more-or-less completely corrupts your save game data, thus deleting hours of progress and characters players have spent hours creating – and, of course, then exploring The Forgotten Realms with. So, rather ironically, while it’s not one of the best Xbox Game Pass games available just yet (although, here’s hoping for the future), Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the best games on Xbox consoles right now and no one on an Xbox console can really play it.
In fact, this issue is so bad that, just a handful of hours ago, Xbox Support advised Baldur’s Gate 3 players to save their game as soon as possible, quit to the Xbox dashboard, and leave Baldur’s Gate 3 alone until a fix is identified and released. How long will that actually take, though? Well, we don’t have an exact timeline for a fix, but it’s something that should be resolved sooner rather than later.
Trying to keep players in the loop, and – we can imagine – offer them some reassurance given the current situation, Larian Studios’ director of publishing Michael Douse says that the developer’s work with Microsoft on resolving the issue is “looking optimistic”, but has explained that this situation is “not as simple as just patching the game itself”. While the true nature of the issue is yet to be fully established, this does suggest that it’s something to do with Baldur’s Gate 3’s ability to contact and connect to the cloud – which is where almost all of your Xbox game saves are kept. This would make the issue quite a tricky one to solve, as the cloud isn’t exactly in Larian Studios’ control.
Interestingly, though, if you’re picking up the physical retail version of Baldur’s Gate 3, you shouldn’t actually find yourself affected at all. Douse makes it clear that, “so long as your Xbox firmware is up to date”, this issue shouldn’t be present at all. So, while it might not be as simple as patching the game, this does suggest that a patch to resolve the issue is possible.
When an issue like this arises, it can be difficult to predict a ‘fix date’ – especially when no one is making it clear what the actual issue is. However, with this clearly a top priority for Larian Studios and transparency from the development team on the issue this early into the process of addressing it, we should see an update resolving the Baldur’s Gate 3 save game bug arrive within the next handful of days.
For now, though, as tough as it sounds, you’re just going to have to put down Baldur’s Gate 3 and wait – else you risk your entire save game being corrupted and unusable. In the meantime, if you want to prepare yourself for your next adventure, you can check out the best Baldur’s Gate 3 party options and the best Baldur’s Gate 3 spells right here. Or, if you’re looking for something else entirely, you can check out the free Xbox Game Pass December 2023 games right here. In fact, a huge Ubisoft RPG is joining Xbox Game Pass very soon – something that would make a fine substitute for the next few days, if it takes that long to fix.