I'm touting this small Xbox Ally victory as someone who was irrationally irritated by it. Death Stranding's notorious save file issue on Xbox PC is finally fixed after several years in bug fix limbo.
Death Stranding is a fantastic and rather esoteric action game, developed by Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear Solid fame) alongside Kojima Productions. In a post-apocalyptic America, you take charge of Sam Porter Bridges to bring the remnants of humanity back into contact — while hideous undead entities and ghostly terrorists plague your every step.
The game was previously exclusive to PlayStation, co-funded and published by Sony. Over the years, the franchise has expanded beyond PlayStation, picking up a publishing deal with 505 Games for a PC version. As exclusivity agreements expired and the franchise rights reverted back to Hideo Kojima, Death Stranding was eventually brought to Xbox Series X|S and the Xbox PC store, as part of the Xbox Play Anywhere "buy once, play anywhere" program.
It was a huge victory for Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox PC, which have notoriously struggled to land support from AAA games and publishers. Sadly, though, there were issues — especially on the PC side.
If you take a look at Death Stranding on the Xbox PC store, the game languishes at a lowly 2/5 review score, owing to a particularly nasty save file bug.
After playing the game for 30-60 minutes, the save files would no longer copy properly, causing you to lose further progress. The issue was strange and inconsistent, allowing you to save for a short while before the game eventually, and without warning, would no longer record your data. There have been a variety of workarounds proposed over the years, but many of them required a fairly annoying array of steps.
Thankfully, Microsoft, 505 Games, and Kojima Productions have worked out the issue, and a fix is rolling out as part of the Xbox Gaming Services background app on PC.
To check if you have the fix, go to your Xbox PC app, click on your profile picture, go to Settings, and then the About section. Here, you should see three version numbers. If your "Gaming Services" version number is 32.106.13001.0 or higher, the fix for Death Stranding Director's Cut should be in. I spent all evening testing it myself on Gaming Services version 33.108.12001.0, and found that my progress was finally being saved consistently.
The save file issue wasn't prevalent on Xbox Series X|S, thankfully, but for those buying an Xbox Ally or Xbox Ally X recently, it was particularly painful to see Death Stranding not working properly. The game is hyper-optimized and runs incredibly well even in low power states, making it a great option for achieving maximum battery life on the go with Z1E or Z2E PC gaming handhelds. Thankfully, it's all sorted now.
You can grab Death Stranding Director's Cut from the Xbox Store, either on console or PC, for $39.99 as an Xbox Play Anywhere title.
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