Game launches have always been beset by bugs and other issues. And no video game is really immune to this. Whether it’s crashes or save corruption, something almost always goes wrong for some users. And it looks like early reports of one game launch have uncovered a major problem. Watch Dogs: Legion is scheduled for release Thursday October 29 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
Now there’s a new issue as according to Eurogamer (and corroborated by other sources like Guardian’s Games Editor Keza MacDonald in a tweet) the game is causing major issues for some owners on the Xbox One X. A certain story mission titled “404” is apparently soft-locking consoles at some point in the game. There’s some bug in the code that is causing the console to actually overheat and force a thermal shutdown. That’s pretty bad news, but it seems to only happen with that mission on some consoles.
I've been playing Watch Dogs Legion for a few days, but like several other reviewers I spoke to, I encountered a critical bug that bricked my console a few hours into the story content. I'm delaying the review until it's patched – but I can only suggest you don't buy it yet.
— Keza MacDonald (@kezamacdonald) October 28, 2020
Overheating issues on consoles are pretty serious, given the incredibly tight thermal ranges and custom cooling solutions they often run. And with the next-generation gaming consoles coming, this will hopefully be a thing of the past.
It’s currently unclear if this will affect all Xbox users, or just a random happenstance for some console players, but it’s worth thinking about. Good news is, there seems to be a patch on the way already.
Ubisoft are apparently aware of the issue, and has issued a statement saying: “We’re aware of this issue and there will be a hot fix due to be released on 30th October which should help.”
