As mentioned on their site, Bioware, developer of the AD&D RPG series Baldur's Gate, has issued the Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn patch 23037. This patch corrects the NPC "X appears busy" bug experienced with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

However, the company also mentioned five particulars about the patch:

• The patch fixes are not retroactive; certain bugs will be prevented. However, bugs that have already been triggered in saved games will not be reversed.
• After the patch is installed, saved games will be functional.
• Installing the patch over the game is safe whether it has already been beta patched or unpatched.
• For Multiplayer games, people that wish to play with each other must have the same version of the game. This means that a player with a patched or beta patched game will not be able to play with an unpatched or unbeta patched game.
• In order to restore BG2 to its original version without any fixes, players must uninstall the game and then reinstall.

Bioware also mentioned that reinstalling the patch is safe as it just overwrites the files. Sites that wish to mirror the patch must e-mail Bioware at the address found on their website. For international users of Baldur's Gate 2, this patch however is only for the English version (United Kingdom and North America), as the company is still working on the international version. This patch also fixes the bugs found in the previous Baldur's Gate II patch. This patch is not the same one issued for the Baldur's Gate II expansion, Throne of Bhaal. We will keep you posted on the release of the international patch as soon as it comes available.