Who is Dude Mack? Save file causing panic among Starfield players

By Fariha Bhatti

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Feb 5, 2024

Reading time: 2 min

Starfield players are experiencing a creepy event where a save file named “Dude Mack” would appear in their game history. 

Who is Dude Mack? The Starfield forums are littered with the same question after multiple players experienced a crash while playing the game. Upon reloading, their save history was gone, replaced by an unknown save file dubbed “Dude Mack.” 

This event has left players wondering who Dude Mack is and what he is doing in Starfield. Is Bethesda teasing a new character? 

Who is Dude Mack in Starfield? 

Starfield character

So far, it’s unknown who Dude Mack is, but he’s undoubtedly not canon to game events. It’s likely a placeholder to prevent corrupted saves.

“I thought it was losing my mind. today was the first day my character name appeared on Continue since the update,” a player said.

On February 4, many players reported a crash in Starfield. Upon rebooting, their game history was replaced by Dude Mack with DD//MM//YY as a date. Play hours were also incredibly high. Some players have reported experiencing the same incident, even though their game did not crash. 

It turns out it’s not really a creepy event or a teaser for an upcoming character. The Dude Mack save file has existed since Fallout 4 days. The initial report dates back to 2016 when a player encountered an issue where their save history was replaced by a user named Dude Mack. However, upon loading the file, it redirected to the last autosave the player had made. 

Dude Mack is likely a legacy save placeholder from the dev to ensure that progress isn’t lost in case of crashes. However, this hasn’t yet been confirmed. Rest assured, it’s not a teaser for a character.

According to the community, the issue can be fixed by restarting the game a few times. However, it’s worth waiting for Bethesda to address the problem since some have claimed their progress was lost after encountering the Dude Mack save file. 

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