Baldur’s Gate 3was finally released for Xbox Series X|S on December 7, four months after the full game dropped on PC and about three months after its PlayStation 5 debut, allowing a whole new set of fans to enjoy ourbest RPG of 2023.However, as one player recently found out, uploading clips of certain scenes and content from the game can result in some rather serious repercussions from Xbox.
Posting to the Baldur’s Gate 3 Reddit over the weekend, Redditor Daddy-Vegas (who plays under the gamertag Big Daddy LV, shared screenshots of messages he reported came from Xbox, banning him from using the platform’s online gaming service for 366 days on a “three strikes” penalty. Clarifying the reason for the suspension, the player admitted that he had used his Xbox’s recording function to record clips of some “naked camp time fun.”
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Most players end up killing him.
However, he claims that sharing the videos publicly wasn’t his intent, other than sending them to his brother to share some laughs over. Rather, it’s an unfortunate side effect that comes from recording game clips on Xbox, as the service is set to automatically upload all recorded videos to its servers by default. As there were three separate clips of the same scene recorded, the three strikes rule apparently went into effect, resulting in the lengthy ban from Xbox’s online service, ending on August 04, 2025. “I’m hoping the appeals process fixes this, but as of now; I can’t play any game that requires a network connection (Basically making all the money I put into MW3 over the last 6 months even more worthless),” he lamented in the post, adding that the suspension came without any direct message warning against such actions.
What’s Xbox Got To Say About Community Standards?
Baldur’s Gate 3 picked up a lot of attention even before its full release due to its inclusion of nudity and sex scenes, some of whichcaught more attention than others. However, the player notes that the offending videos didn’t involve any sort of sexual content. Rather, it was a scene from the camp in which one companion, Shadowheart, attempts to kill another companion, Lae’zel, “… just naked”.
A look online atXbox’s Community Standardsshows a list of 10 different headings, one of which is “Keep Your Content Clean”. A bulletpointed list of ‘don’ts’ under this heading includes the clause “Post game clips that will offend many others”. The online document also states that when handling violations to the community standards, Xbox deals with users by restricting “access to features that are most closely associated with the problematic behavior”, which often can involve suspension of access to online service, as well as “Blocks on the ability to upload game clips and screenshots”.
While Xbox could make a case that the player did violate those standards under that definition, the Reddit community seems to be strongly backing the player. Xbox has multiple ways to save content, including pressing the central button on the controller to take a screenshot or holding it in to take a 30-second clip of what had just happened in a game. As previously mentioned, these screenshots and clips are set by default to upload automatically to Xbox’s online service, whether or not that was the player’s intent.
“That’s outrageous and so unbelievably moronic!” commented Redditor JoseMongo. “Surely any content recorded from an 18+ title would simply be marked as NSFW. How can they ban you for using a feature they provided, on a game they’ve sold you.” Others have shared some useful tips to help other players to avoid a similar fate, such as inserting a USB drive into the console and having captured images and clips save there instead of uploading to publicly viewable spaces.
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We Spoke With The Player To Get His Side
For his part, Big Daddy LV is reluctant for his negligence in keeping the videos out of the public but isn’t admitting to any malicious intent, telling us, “I understand they don’t want that content going live where kids can see it, but I also didn’t [realize] that being uploaded to the cloud also meant shared to the public. I have since turned off the setting to upload clips automatically… if that’s even going to matter at this point.” He later added, “I wasn’t intentionally / knowingly doing anything wrong.”
While he stated in the forum that he would be understanding of a short ban from Xbox’s online service due to his unintentional gaffe, he told us he feels the 366-day ban is excessive, especially considering how easy it is to upload clips from a game that’s provided for use on an Xbox console.
“I just took a screenshot of content presented to me as designed by Larian studios, in a game Xbox took my money for, using a feature there’s literally a button for smack in the middle of the controller,” he told us. “I didn’t go out of my way to create adult content in an otherwise innocent game; I simply documented the content presented to me in a game very clearly rated M for Nudity and Strong Sexual Content. I feel like it’s if you recorded Game of Thrones on your DVR and your cable company suspended your TV service because someone was naked in the episode.”
He says he has had “an exemplary player record up until this point” and feels that the one-year ban is unwarranted, especially with the lack of a direct warning. He is also concerned for other gamers meeting the same fate. “Going from 0 to a full 1 year ban in the span of 30 seconds is beyond excessive; especially with no way to just contact support to get it cleared up. I know I’m not the first person this has happened to, but I know unfortunately; I won’t be the last.”
Big Daddy LV also shared some screenshots of the captured content with us. While we can’t show it here, just as he claimed in his post, it does indeed show a nude Shadowheart kneeling over a nude Lae’zel with a knife to her throat as his Tav (the player character, also nude) looks on and mediates the argument. He also shared a screenshot of the text he sent in jest to his brother, with the text reading “I can think of a few reasons why Baldurs Gate 3 won game of the year.”
We have also reached out to Xbox parent company Microsoft and may have more information on this story as it unfolds. For now, though, BG3 players should be wary about what’s shown onscreen before bumping that capture button, intentionally or otherwise.
