Monster Hunter World: Iceborn finally arrived on PC yesterday, but it doesn't seem to be going particularly well for everyone: a number of players on Steam and Reddit are complaining that the update has removed their saves, and in some cases lost hundreds of hours of gameplay.

After installing the Iceborne expansion, players affected by this issue are told at the start of the game that a compatible save file cannot be found. At that point, they are prompted to create a new save, and an entirely new game begins. To make matters worse, according to VG247, if the player exits the game at this point, the same is automatically uploaded to Steam (if Steam cloud saves are enabled).

One theory is that the presence of certain mods may be causing compatibility issues, but at least a few players have stated that they have lost saves even though they have no mods installed. It is also possible that players who have not played for an extended period of time have missed updates that have changed the save format, and Iceborne is unable to read old saves. A Capcom representative said the team is aware of the complaints and is looking into the issue, but nothing conclusive has come out yet. [If you have not yet played the Iceborne expansion but plan to do so soon, we recommend that you manually back up your save data before doing so. If the save has already been erased, it may be possible to restore it with the MHWSaveTransfer utility and this "Iceborne Ready" save.

Alternatively, instead of diving headfirst into a risky DIY fix, you could wait a bit until Capcom resolves the issue. You can do this, but this is the approach I recommend. I will keep you posted as soon as I have more information.

In the meantime, if you've managed to work around the issue and are happily hunting monsters in this frozen new world, there are some helpful tips you should check out, including a list of fearsome new beasts, 10 things to do before you start, and an endgame guide to Guiding Lands.

Update: No word on a resolution yet, but a Capcom representative says any updates will be posted on the Steam announcement page.