Baldur's Gate 3 devs working with Microsoft to sort "annoying and uncool" Xbox bans
UPDATE: Xbox players should start seeing their Baldur's Gate 3 bans lifted.
UPDATE 8/1/2024: Baldur's Gate 3 Xbox players whose capture clips have been flagged by Microsoft should start to see their bans lifted.
Developer Larian shared an update on X (formerly Twitter) over the weekend, to state work is ongoing to sort these bans. The bans in question saw players being penalised for capturing in-game footage containing nudity, which was then uploaded to Xbox servers.
"Microsoft team is aware of the issue," the developer said. "If you're wanting to upload any clips in the meantime, make sure to turn off mature content."
The original story continues below.
ORIGINAL 5/1/2024: Developer Larian is working alongside Microsoft to sort out "annoying and uncool" account bans, which can happen when Baldur's Gate 3 footage containing nudity gets uploaded to Xbox servers.
This all stems back to the weekend, when Reddit user Daddy-Vegas warned other Baldur's Gate 3 players about capturing certain footage in Larian's award-winning RPG. The Redditor recorded "some naked camp time fun", which they planned to share with their brother. Xbox then automatically uploaded the footage to its servers.
However, if Xbox discovers imagery it deems offensive, the content is removed and the player's profile will be "temporarily prohibited from sharing additional imagery (typically for 24 hours)". And, as Daddy-Vegas' clips included that aforementioned nudity, they were met with a ban for each clip, which resulted in their account being suspended for a year. They have since appealed their ban, with the Redditor revealing earlier this week their efforts were successful.
Now, word of Daddy-Vegas' brief ban has evidently made its way back to the Baldur's Gate 3 team. Earlier this week, Larian's director of publishing Michael Douse said the developer had "seen the reports" of some players having issues with their accounts after uploading footage from their gameplay sessions.
Douse stated Larian was currently "in discussion with Microsoft" about this issue. "We're looking into it," Douse wrote. "Annoying and uncool."
Eurogamer has emailed Microsoft and Larian for further comment.
Meanwhile, Baldur's Gate 3 players are still experiencing issues with game saves on Xbox, with some losing their progress as a result. Thankfully, Larian has offered an interim workaround, that should tide players over before a more permanent solution is found.
But despite its Xbox woes, there is still plenty of love for Larian's RPG epic. We awarded Baldur's Gate 3 four stars on release, with Ruth Cassidy praising its "excellent stagecraft and meticulous detail".