I’m still waiting to playBaldur’s Gate 3. You know, that much-acclaimed Game of the Year for 2023 that left absolutely no chance for other heavy-lifters likeThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the KingdomandAlan Wake 2? And I probably should wait for a bit more.
During the holiday season, though, I almost gave up and ventured into the Forgotten Realms on my Xbox. I say ‘almost’ because there’s some buzz about this specific version that caught my eye. What I learned was the game’s darkest secret, which sadly doesn’t get nearly enough recognition amid all the surrounding fanfare — and it’s more grim than a brain infected with an Illithid parasite.
The Xbox Version Is Essentially Unplayable
Let’s get this straight from the start: I don’t own a decent gaming PC, which is probably the best way to experience this game. Before grabbing Baldur’s Gate 3 forXbox, I thought it’d be wise to check the web quickly to see ifLarian had announced any significant updatesand whether I should wait longer or not. Instead, what I found were numerous reports from players sharing horror stories about losing hours and hours of progress. And what a daunting read that was. Some folks talked about losing a moderate 20 to 30 hours, while others went through the agony of saying goodbye to a whopping 60 to 80 hours of gameplay. Shocking, to say the least.
Microsoft and Larian seemed to be in a hurry to deliver the GOTY to the masses, so they quietly launched the broken version while the game was hot and being praised everywhere.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is, by all accounts, a massive game. Now, picture this: after meticulously collecting every item through its first two acts, you find out you have to do it all over again. I know, there are times when you intentionally want to start fresh in the middle of your current adventure, but having my progress snatched away for good would probably mean I’d never lay hands on that cursed game ever again.
DualShockers' Most Shocking, Mind-Blowing Baldur’s Gate 3 Moments
Reminiscing about the wildest moments from our 2023 Game of the Year.
What’s even more baffling is that as soon as the first wave of complaints surfaced,MicrosoftandLarianacknowledged the issue and claimed they were taking it extremely seriously. A few days later, an update arrived, and both parties seemingly confirmed that the problem is now a thing of the past. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The complaints just kept coming to that day; even more so in the past weeks. It’s crucial to know that these issues persist, making Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox essentially unplayable.
It’s also curious how the Xbox version was released right after the end-of-year awards season, riding the hype wave. It was loudly advertised as ‘the most polished version,’ boasting all previously released updates. This timing seems quite convenient, as the game’s current poor state on Xbox might have tarnished its reputation if it had been released earlier.
Some players rightly suggested that Baldur’s Gate 3 should’ve never been released in its current state on Xbox. They proposed a delay of another month or so, or even pulling it from the store, similar to what was done withCyberpunk 2077, until the issue is genuinely resolved. Instead, just likeCD Projekt Red, Microsoft and Larian seemed to be in a hurry to deliver the GOTY to the masses, so they quietly launched the broken version while the game was hot and being praised everywhere, perhaps hoping that few people would notice the complaints now, especially since both the PC and PS5 versions are running fine already. It’s truly a shame it all ended up like this.
Not The First RPG To Face These Issues
While there’s a prevailing notion that this save file problem is somehow exclusive to Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox, unfortunately, that’s not entirely accurate. It’s not the only major title grappling with similar issues on the platform. As a general rule, the larger and more extensive a game is, the higher the likelihood of encountering some kind of save issues. In my experience, I faced the exact same problem twice in well-known RPGs just over the past year.
It started withThe Witcher 3: Wild Huntas I replayed it with all the latest next-gen updates in early 2023. There was a cloud save mistake, resulting in my latest 100-hour playthrough being replaced with a more recent local save. Despite reaching out to CDPR’s customer support, they were unable to retrieve my lost files. Fortunately, I had already finished the main story, and the option to roll the expansions separately proved invaluable. Nonetheless, it was a bit disappointing to play as a default Geralt instead of my customized one, boasting high-level skills and top-quality gear, and a baggage load of hard choices behind him. But hey, gear and skills progression aren’t the reasons we love The Witcher, right?
I’m Glad To See Baldur’s Gate 3 Say ‘No’ To Game Pass
Game Pass is a great service, but that doesn’t mean we should want it as a one-stop shop for all games.
Later on, another corrupted save file issue almost wiped out dozens of hours of my progress inDragon Age: Inquisition— agreat game worth exploringif you’re waiting for Baldur’s Gate 3 to receive more updates or if you’ve already finished it and are looking for something in its vein. However, like BG3, it’s probably a good idea to experience DAI on a different platform and not on Xbox.
I’m not sure whether the problem I faced was exclusive to the Xbox Series X|S, but several times during my playthrough, my save files got retroactively messed up, preventing my character from interacting with anything, and thus almost locking me out of accessing new areas (there are doors everywhere). I later discovered that the cause of this error was related to upgrading my gear, so fortunately, this problem could be mitigated if you had a save file near a workbench and were lucky enough to interact with it.
Having faced such issues before, I can only imagine how disheartening it must be for BG3 players. Few things are more frustrating than losing dozens of hours of progress in a narrative-driven RPG and having to start from scratch. The current situation of Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox is absolutely unacceptable and needs a prompt fix. The devs have already released yet anotherstatementthat the issue will be fixed sometime down the road, and it seems that it’s not Larian’s fault, but I hope more players become aware of the problem before embarking on this epic, GOTY-worthy journey.
As for me, it’s yet another reminder ofwhy waiting instead of jumping straightinto a hyped game on day one is often worth it in our industry. See you in a few months, Karlach.
