Crusader Kings III is my new obsession. It’s a devilishly complex strategy game that almost invariably involves sleeping with or murdering members of your own family. And that’s not the gruesome bit. The truly horrific part is trying to install DLC if you’re playing Crusader Kings III on Game Pass. It’s utterly monstrous, so if you’re a CK3 player who’s had trouble activating DLC, read on to make your life much easier.
How to install Crusader Kings III DLC on Game Pass
If you’re playing Crusader Kings III via Microsoft Game Pass, you can still buy DLC to add to the game, but you need to buy it directly from the Microsoft Store (at least, I think you do – if you know otherwise, please let me know in comments below).
Here, for example, you can see the Crusader Kings III: Chapter II pack that I bought yesterday, which includes Tours and Tournaments, the forthcoming Wards and Wardens and other bobbins.
Buying the DLC is straightforward enough. You open the Xbox app on your PC, search for the pack and click Buy. And once you do, you get the reassuring message (as shown below) that the DLC is “ready to use in-game” and “no download needed”.
This is an outright lie. Or, at least, it was in my case. Because when I went into the game the DLC hadn’t been activated at all and I was being invited to buy it afresh. I don’t think so.
After a lot of wrong answers found on various forums, I eventually stumbled across the solution myself. The good news is it doesn’t involve having to link your Xbox account to your Paradox Interactive account, and having to deal with the latter’s truly broken registration system.
Instead, what you now need to do is go to the main Microsoft Store app on your Windows PC, not the Xbox app. In the Store, search for Crusader Kings III and once you’ve opened the game’s page, scroll down until you see the DLC you purchased under Top add-ons, as shown below:
It should be labelled ‘owned’. Now click on that and you’ll open the DLC’s own page, where you should find a button letting you download it. The button appears where the arrow is pointing in the screenshot below:
Press the download button (which isn’t visible in the screenshot above as I’ve already downloaded it) and now you’re on the home stretch.
When you next fire up the Crusader Kings III launcher, you should find a new DLC section on the left (if you haven’t previously installed any DLC, that is) as shown here:
Click on that DLC option and you should find any packs you’ve bought are now activated. If not, enable them here:
Now, enjoy your new content. And try not to bed your daughter.
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