It Takes Two Steam Players May Run Into A Weird Save Problem

It Takes Two, the award-winning and pretty dang good co-op game, received an update today making it verified on Steam Deck and removing the need to use the EA App launcher. But that update also killed old cloud saves. EA’s solution for fans who might have lost progress: Download this other save file of the completed game instead.

Released in March 2021, It Takes Two was published by EA and developed by Hazelight aka the studio run by Josef Fares aka the “Fuck the Oscars” speech dude from The Game Awards in 2017. Anyway, It Takes Two tells the story of a couple who are drifting apart. Their child makes a wish and they are turned into toys who must work together to overcome obstacles and also, in a weirdly dark moment, brutally murder a screaming stuffed elephant. And if you’ve been playing that game recently on PC using the EA App’s cloud saving features, you might run into a slight snag…

What to do if you lost progress in It Takes Two

On May 29, EA posted an update on Steam announcing that It Takes Two no longer requires the EA App launcher to play. The game is also now verified on Steam Deck, too.

In an included FAQ, EA makes it clear that if you are playing It Takes Two through Steam, the game now uses Steam Cloud for backing up saves. But what if you were using the EA App’s cloud saves? Well, those are gone now. And if you didn’t have your saves backed up on your PC, you’ve lost all your progress in It Takes Two.

Now, I assume the number of people affected by this change will be pretty small. Most people weren’t likely relying solely on EA’s cloud saves for It Takes Two. However, if you were, then EA’s “solution” is pretty wild. In the FAQ, EA includes a link to download a completed save game for It Takes Two on PC. Download that, drop it in a specific folder—as listed by EA—and then boot up the game, select the chapter you and your friend were playing, and there you go.

As far as I can tell EA didn’t give any real advanced heads-up for this change. I contacted EA about this and asked if they sent players any type of warning that the EA App’s cloud saves for It Takes Two would suddenly stop working but didn’t hear back before publication.

While I’m happy to see a Steam game ditch a third-party launcher, it’s a bit odd to see a massive video game publisher sharing a save game as a solution for players losing progress. Better than nothing, I guess?

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