Recently I tried to load up my Dragon Age: Origins save game on my Xbox 360 only to be greeted with the following message:

Unable to load save game as the required downloadable content is not present on the selected storage device. Please insert a storage device containing the required downloadable content, or download the downloadable content again.
Dalish Promise Ring

I had purchased the Collector’s Edition and it came with two pre-order bonuses of a Memory Band and a Dalish Promise Ring.  I entered in all of the codes for the CE content, Dragon Blood Armor, Stone Prisoner quest and the two rings.  Each downloaded without a problem except when I chose the Memory Band.  After it completed downloading and the download screen refreshed, the Dalish Promise Ring reported as being downloaded.  The problem is that it’s all part of a single file download called Promo Item Pack 1 so it authenticated only the Memory Band but not the Dalish Promise Ring despite having downloaded the physical content.  That is why it needed me to be online so that it could authenticate it at the start of each session against the Dragon Age BioWare servers.

I understand others are experiencing a similar issue but this time the inability to load save games related to either the Memory Band or Embri’s Many Pockets not being on the storage device.

Well, I have a fix that has worked for me as well as other Dragon Age forum users!

How to fix the “Unable to load save game” problem:

1. Log into xbox.com and check your Download Purchase History.  It’s more than likely that the offending item won’t be in the history list.
2. Turn your xbox on and at the dashboard navigate to your relevant storage device and go into Games -> Dragon Age.  Find the likely file, for me it was “Promo Item Pack 1″, and delete it (or if you’re paranoid move it to a memory card and then remove the memory card).
3. Load Dragon Age: Origins and go into the Download Content section – because the DLC is no longer on your storage device you will get the change to redownload.  The trick here is to choose the item that was previously reported as not being on your storage device – for me I downloaded the Dalish Promise Ring first which automatically included the Memory Band (which was already authorised for my account).
4. Quit out to the dashboard and disconnect from Xbox Live.  Load Dragon Age: Origins and test if you can load your save game.
5. SUCCESS! You can now play offline!

I have confirmation from a fellow Dragon Age user that this fix worked for him when he had issues with both the Memory Band and Embri’s Many Pockets.