08 January 2024 , 17:00
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Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the horniest games out there – if you play your cards right – but players on Xbox were finding themselves banned just for capturing steamy gameplay clips. Happily, the developer has stepped in to sort it out.
Any RPG worth its salt has romance options, and depending on the age-rating of the game, ticking them off can lead to some interesting scenes, to say the least. Baldur's Gate 3 is up there on that front, presenting a smorgasbord of characters that the player can woo and – if things go really well – WooHoo, if you catch my drift.
Of course, once you've done the deed, you might want to share those gameplay clips for what I'm sure are perfectly legitimate purposes. Bumping uglies with the Emperor being one, for example; it's not just anyone who can romance a mind flayer or handle all of those tentacles. But Xbox Series X|S players trying to share their sexcapades have been facing bans thanks to the content being flagged when it's uploaded to Xbox servers.
Microsoft has a dedicated page on the topic, where it says that in order to protect players from what it deems to be "offensive imagery", Xbox can remove the content you upload and you'll be "temporarily prohibited from sharing additional imagery (typically for 24 hours)". The redditor who first found themselves on the receiving end of this got more than that, with a hefty ban of one year.
Larian Studios' director of publishing, Michael Douse, took to Twitter upon hearing the news, telling followers that the developer was "in discussion with Microsoft" and calling the bans "annoying and uncool". Those discussions have seemingly gone well, with the official Larian account announcing at the end of last week that "players whose capture clips have been flagged on Xbox should now see their bans begin to lift. Work is ongoing, and the Microsoft team is aware of the issue!"
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While Baldur's Gate 3 Xbox bans are lifting and liberating players from horny jail, the central issue still seems to be there: Xbox players can't upload the raunchiest version of their Baldur's Gate 3 content. Larian's tweet goes on to say that "if you’re wanting to upload any clips in the meantime, make sure to turn off mature content."
Douse did chime in again, but it doesn't sound too promising. "Got confirmation this morning that bans are beginning to lift," he tweeted, before adding "we’re in discussion with Microsoft but I’ll let them handle any of their own policy discussions. Progress!"
Bear in mind that Xbox players getting bans for recording adult-themed gameplay clips isn't anything new. The same thing happened with The Witcher 3, with players lamenting over the situation in a thread from November 2022 over on the Microsoft forum. The player shares their ban for a gameplay clip featuring partial nudity before letting loose on Microsoft's 'dumb' policy:
"I just dont understand why actual gameplay footage would get you banned. Its the dumbest thing ever. Content is objectionable? Well only let players that are allowed to play these mature rated games see them then. I'm not even capturing them for any other reason the to share a laugh with other adult friends.
"Make our captures private, I don't care. Just don't ban people who are adults for capturing their game play with adult themes. Literally 2/3 of the top selling games feature adult theme content. So dumb."
This is definitely something that Xbox needs to address given the number of adults playing age appropriate games with mature content on consoles that cost hundreds of pounds (or whatever your currency of choice is). It's not like kids are picking up the hardware with their pocket money. Of course the policies need to protect young players but they also need to avoid culminating in situations like this.
As one user points out in the Twitter thread, this isn't new, so why aren't these possible TOS breaches being resolved for mature games before they release? Baldur's Gate 3 Xbox players aren't having the best of times over on Microsoft's platform right now, and with save issues on the platform as well, it's not been the smoothest of launches. Stay tuned to Larian's socials for more updates, but for now, keep it PG-rated.