Hello everyone. The issue is that my save files won't load as the game presents this error: "Unable to load save data as required downloadable content is missing. Please download the content again."
It then lists Jaws of Hakkon, The Descent, Spoils of the Avaar and Spoils of the Qunari as the missing content, even though they're downloaded.
EDIT - SOLUTION
- Download the ProfileOptions.rar file attached to this post.
- Navigate to C:\Users\your username\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age Inquisition\Save
- Make a backup of this folder
- Extract the file in the .rar to this folder, overwriting the one already in there
- Launch the game
It'll launch the game in offline mode, which means no multiplayer and no importing World States from the Keep, but you'll be able to continue your saves.
Credit for this solution and the ProfileOptions file goes to @llTouChell who posted it here.
THE PROBLEM
I've done a bit of research on this because I didn't cherish the thought of losing 67,5 hours of my life. Unlike everyone else I've seen report this issue, I've already spent 300+ hours on Inquisition, as I've owned the main game on Origin since it launched in 2014.
I also own Trespasser since 2017, also bought on Origin. I don't own The Descent, Jaws of Hakkon or any of the other minor paid DLC though.
Since I did not own those DLCs, I decided to try out the EA Play version which includes them, available through Game Pass Ultimate.
The thing is, after downloading it, the game would not open for whatever reason (Inquisition startup hiccups have been a thing since 2014 so I wasn't surprised).
I decided to open Origin to see if it would recognize the game even though it was installed by some other launcher and for my joy it did and it worked flawlessly.
I then deleted the EA Play App and enjoyed a month and a half of my third playthrough of Inquisition with some brand new (for me) DLCs, always launching the game through Origin.
The problem began earlier today when I decided to do try out Battlefield 4 and in reinstalling the EA Play App it seems to have screwed my saves royally.
Most of the posts I've come across adressing this issue come from people who played Inquisition through EA Play and then couldn't continue through Steam or Origin.
It seems like each platform has it's own version of the game and they refuse to load each other's saves.
That's corroborated by the fact that @Captn_Platypuzz says in this post that Black Emporium shows up in his game because he's adquired it from Origin and I can confirm that preowned content on Origin is still recognized and available, as Trespasser's custom difficulty is available when starting a new game and it and the other free DLC are not mentioned in the loading error message.
Apparently, like explained in this post, my save files have been "tagged" as being from a GOTY version of the game and Origin, for some reason, no longer recognizes EA Play App's DLCs as being compatible.
But if that's the case, how was I able to play it through Origin in the first place? And why isn't the EA Play App able to load them now?
POSSIBLE SOLUTION / TLDR
The posts that are marked as solved point the solution to being a EA representative activating ("gifting") the DLCs on Origin, as @troutsk42 says in this post
- "Support said they can only add the origin version to my origin account so I'm assuming I'll only be able to play through origin directly rather than steam, but I don't really care since at least my DLC should hopefully work - I'll update whether it worked or not once I reinstall the game (so in a few hours)
- Update: It worked, though (as support said) I have the origin version so play through origin rather than steam."
The same process was recognized as a solution in this post :
"Here is the issue. I bought Dragon Age (the non-Deluxe Edition) several months ago, and have been happily playing it. I'm several hundred hours into the game. Recently, I visited a friend's house, signed into his Xbox, synced my data from the cloud, and played on my game save there. Worked great. After returning home, I signed into my own Xbox, synced my data, and tried to load my game save. Instead of loading, however, Dragon Age gave me the following error:
"Unable to load save data as required downloadable content is missing. Please download the content again." (And then it lists the Deluxe Edition content and some Flames of the Inquisition items.)
Remember, I never purchased the Deluxe Edition!
Turns out, the problem is that my friend DID purchase the Deluxe Edition. And when I played on his console, it silently and irrevocably "upgraded" my save to the Deluxe Edition, without asking me or warning me. And now my game save won't work on any console that lacks the DLC---including my own.
Xbox support and EA support both agree with this explanation of events. And they both agree that the only way to avoid losing my hundreds of hours of progress is to add the DLC to my console."
All of the above considered, buying the DLCs on Origin should solve the problem (for those of us who own the main game on it), which no one who has this issue should do, as they've already paid for a service that includes these products.
While I understand that the solution presented on the precedents I brought up doesn't exactly fit my problem (they have bought the DLCs on another platform while I have them for the limited time my EA Play subscription lasts) I feel it's only fair as THIS EXACT ISSUE HAS EXISTED SINCE 2015 and it has been reported on this forum since at least January 2021.
Could we please get an answer to if EA is willing to do this, and if yes, some help with that process?
