Borderlands 2 exploit erases game saves on Xbox 360

Players have been facing problems with Gearbox’s latest game – Borderlands 2. According to Eurogamer, those playing the game on an Xbox 360 are being hit by a malicious attack that is erasing their game’s save files. Gearbox has submitted a patch to Microsoft to fix the issues, but players are still facing the problem.

The exploit, known as the ‘Graveyard’ exploit, originated from some users who hacked the game’s save files to access a hardcore game mode, much like that in the Diablo and Torchlight series, that the developers had not included in the final game, but had kept the code in for. In hardcore mode, once a character dies, that character is permanently dead and players have to start the game from scratch with a new character. Those playing with players who are using the hardcore mode have discovered that their save files have been deleted when their character died.

Players are recommended against playing public games with strangers for the time being

"Recently a few users have begun violating the Xbox Live Code of Conduct by using an external application to maliciously disrupt the experience and sabotage characters of legitimate Borderlands 2 players on Xbox 360," Gearbox community manager Chris Faylor wrote last week on the game's official forum. "Fortunately it's easy to avoid this scenario.”

"After extensive internal testing, an update to prevent this disruption has been submitted to Microsoft and will be released as soon as possible. Until then, concerned Xbox 360 players of Borderlands 2 should consider playing online with trusted individuals in non-public sessions. This does not affect players on PC or PlayStation 3."

Gearbox had recently released a downloadable content for the game, titled Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty. Gearbox had confirmed the Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty DLC earlier this month. "You can sense the pirate theme across the landscape, even though there's no water," said Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford. "It's all dried up. It feels more like Tatooine than an ocean. These bandits have really embraced the pirate lifestyle, and there's the legend of a treasure. That kicks off this whole adventure that the players can go on."

Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty is the first major DLC released for Borderlands 2 and will be included in the Season Pass. The DLC by itself is costs $9.99 (around Rs 524), but players can also buy the Season Pass for the game, which includes all four planned major DLCs and costs $29.99 (Rs 1,574 approx).

Borderlands 2 is available in retail stores for Rs 999 for the PC version, and Rs 2,499 for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 versions. The PC version of the game is also available on Steam for $59.99 (around Rs 3,100).