Can't launch game due to a broken launcher

[Dale Gribble]

Does anyone know why the game refuses to launch? I click play on steam, then the rockstar launcher appears and it never launches the game. The rockstar launcher also only shows Red Dead Online when I own the version with singleplayer. Does anyone know why this is so broken? It worked fine yesterday and now I can't play at all. I've tried the solutions that are on the web and they have been absolutely no help at all. Any help would be really appreciated as I'm about ready to send a angry email to rockstar. It probably wouldn't do anything though.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Again; there is no install or uninstall of a Steam game; its just files that run.
Either the files are correct or they are corrupted and need fixing.
All the Steam install or uninstall process does is create or remove app manifest from a Steam Library Folder and also add or remove Registry related data to tell the OS whether that app exists on the system or not.

Uninstalling a Steam game and reinstalling it generally never fixes anything cause all you are doing is deleting files and redownloading them. Which again if that was your issue, that is what Verify is for; just like the Repair option in Origin/Uplay

But yes if you have had the SocialClub Runtime on your PC before from maybe back when you played other R* games; uninstall the Rockstar Social Club and Launcher; then navigate to those folders on your system; such as Program Files and also within Documents... and delete anything still present for Rockstar SocialClub or Launcher.

Then install the latest SocialClub Runtime (its in your RDR2 game folder)
and the latest R* Launcher from their website.

Again double check your SC login is correct by logging in via their website first.
Once logged into the R* Launcher and set to auto + remember me; ensure this app is not set to "Start with Windows". Also ensure you are launching Steam Client via Run As Admin option. Never put game clients in OS Startup as they can never "run as admin" when you do this.

[Dale Gribble]

Verifying the game files didn't do anything when I tried it. It said they were all successfully validated. Guess that means I'm going back to the Witcher 3 for the next couple of months until Rockstar fixes this.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

İlk olarak Ghost tarafından gönderildi:

Verifying the game files didn't do anything when I tried it. It said they were all successfully validated. Guess that means I'm going back to the Witcher 3 for the next couple of months until Rockstar fixes this.

Do you own, or have played any other R* games on your PC that has this issue?

[Dale Gribble]

Nope, this is the only Rockstar game I have on it. I'll try clearing any trace of the social club. If that doesn't work then I'm just going to give up as this has been giving me a headache.

[Dale Gribble]

I cleared any trace of the social club from my PC and I still have the issue. I don't see how this can be anything on my end as none of the online solutions have worked. Guess I'm stuck waiting for Rockstar to patch this. Which will probably be never given the stories I've heard about the cheaters in online modes.

[wheelsofchaos]

While I appreciate the above tips, that does not fix the issue for me. I've formated and reinstalled Windows 10. No other programs are installed except the lastest Nvidia driver (v497.09), Steam, and Windows 10 with all updates installed. That's as clean as you can get. It still fails to launch. Click to start Red Dead and the RockStar loading screen appears with the star logo flashing for about 15 seconds and then it crashes. Nothing else. This is a game I've been playing for months on this PC. What has changed??? The only factor remaining as far as I can tell is the RockStar launcher/social club. Let me know if there is something I'm missing. I would love to play this game again. And just for reference I've also tried Nvidia driver v472.12 which is the one that used to work.

[wheelsofchaos]

Ghost,

You should also check your log files. Go to \Documents\Rockstar Games\Social Club\socialclub_launcher.log.

For the launcher:
\Documents\Rockstar Games\Launcher\launcher.log

I think I'm on to something here:
This is my error :
[crashdetection] Exit code 0xc0000005 indicates a fatal game exit (reason: STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION)


[2021-11-28 15:03:51.243] [DISPLAY] [14736] [crashdetection] Reading game exit file...
[2021-11-28 15:03:51.243] [WARNING] [14736] [crashdetection] Not found: EXIT_CODE
[2021-11-28 15:03:51.244] [WARNING] [14736] [crashdetection] No exit code found in exit file.
[2021-11-28 15:03:51.244] [WARNING] [14736] [crashdetection] Not found: ERROR_FILE_HASH
[2021-11-28 15:03:51.244] [DISPLAY] [14736] [crashdetection] No additional error information found.
[2021-11-28 15:03:51.244] [WARNING] [14736] [crashdetection] Not found: ERROR_MESSAGE
[2021-11-28 15:03:51.244] [DISPLAY] [14736] [crashdetection] No additional error message found.
[2021-11-28 15:03:51.244] [DISPLAY] [14736] [crashdetection] Deleting game exit file...
[2021-11-28 15:03:51.244] [ ERROR ] [14736] [crashdetection] Exit code 0xc0000005 indicates a fatal game exit (reason: STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION)
[2021-11-28 15:03:52.615] [DISPLAY] [Main ] [launcher] StartShutdown - Now in progress
[2021-11-28 15:03:54.233] [DISPLAY] [Main ] [app] Application quit requested (exit code: 0)
[2021-11-28 15:03:54.487] [DISPLAY] [Main ] [launcher] Closing log file.

[Dale Gribble]

It's the same for me. Nothing has worked. The game worked fine when I got it and I played it for a couple hours. The next day, Rockstar's launcher updated and it hasn't worked since. In my mind, that proves it's Rockstar's launcher that is broken and not my PC since that is the only thing that has changed. I'm going back to the Witcher 3 for the next month or however long it will be before they decide to fix this. Though I'm not hopeful about that.

[Dale Gribble]

Anyone know what this means? I'm not great at deciphering what this is telling me.

[00000000] Wed Dec 1 15:30:02 2021
[00000000] Rockstar Games Social Club SDK: x64 RELEASE
[00000000]
[00000000] Settings:
[00000000] Offline Only Mode: false
[00000000] Launcher Mode: true
[00000000] Running title: launcher
[00000000] Platform: PC
[00000000] Using prefix 'rgl' for Social Club Services
[00000000] Language: English
[00000000] Environment: Production
[00000000]
[00000000] Network initialized
[00000000] Presence Supported: 0
[00000000] Friends Supported: 0
[00000000] Connection State Change Supported: 0
[00000000] Achievements Supported: 0
[00000000] Autologin/Transfer Supported: 0
[00000000]
[00000000] RAGE initialized
[00000000] Social Club Directory: C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Social Club\
[00000000] Root Data Directory: C:\Users\J_ubi\Documents\Rockstar Games\
[00000000] File System Initialized
[00000000]
[00000000] Command Line Arguments:
[00000000] -skipPatcherCheck
[00000000]
[00000000] Version Info: 2.0.9.3
[00000001] JSON Interface initialized
[00000001] Metadata initialized
[00000001] Achievement Manager initialized
[00000001] Player Manager initialized
[00000001] Gamer ♥♥♥ Manager initialized
[00000001] Profile Manager initialized
[00000001] Presence Manager initialized
[00000001] Commerce Manager initialized
[00000001] Task Manager initialized
[00000001] Telemetry Manager initialized
[00000001] Network interface initialized
[00000001] Cloud Saves interface initialized
[00000001] Multi-Factor Authentication initialized
[00000002] Social Club Data initialized
[00000002] Profanity filter initialized
[00000003] Subprocess path: C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Social Club\SocialClubHelper.exe
[00000012] Validating Social Club dependency versions:
[00000012] Social Club DLL (C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Social Club\socialclub.dll) - 2.0.9.3
[00000012] Social Club Helper (C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Social Club\SocialClubHelper.exe) - 2.0.9.3
[00000012] Vulkan Renderer Layer (C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Social Club\SocialClubVulkanLayer.dll) - 2.0.9.3
[00000012] D3D12 Renderer DLL (C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Social Club\SocialClubD3D12Renderer.dll) - 2.0.9.3
[00000012] Chromium Embedded Framework (C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Social Club\libcef.dll) - 85.3.9.0
[00000012] Browser Cache Directory: C:\Users\J_ubi\Documents\Rockstar Games\Social Club\Launcher\Renderer\
[00000012] Subprocess path: C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Social Club\SocialClubHelper.exe
[00000020] Game/Launcher IPC initialized
[00000020] SDK fully initialized
[00000020]
[00000020] Setting Social Club UI scaling to 1.00
[00000020] Social Club UI - Entering State: 'LOADING'
[00000021] Social Club UI - Entering State: 'WAITING_FOR_PAGE_LOAD_COMPLETION'
[00000026] UpdateConnectionState :: Connection state changed from offline to online
[00001965] Social Club UI - Entering State: 'WAITING_FOR_JAVASCRIPT_BINDINGS'
[00001965] Social Club UI - Entering State: 'WAITING_FOR_JAVASCRIPT_PONG'
[00002016] Social Club UI - Entering State: 'WAITING_FOR_JAVASCRIPT_READY'
[00002084] Social Club UI - Entering State: 'JAVASCRIPT_READY'
[00002084] Social Club UI - Entering State: 'START_SIGN_IN'
[00002113] Auto sign in profile detected.
[00002555] Signing in to profile 'Geist223' (Online: 1, Auto Sign In: 1, Save Email: 1)
[00002610] Queue download of profile avatar
[00002610] Requesting authorization token from server.
[00002610] Social Club UI - Entering State: 'SIGNING_IN'
[00003127] Saved profile for Geist223
[00003129] Signed in online to profile: Geist223
[00003159] Social Club UI - Entering State: 'FINISHED'
[00003159] Finished loading Social Club UI
[00003159]
[00015583] Shutting down...

[Bad 💀 Motha]

İlk olarak wheelsofchaos tarafından gönderildi:

While I appreciate the above tips, that does not fix the issue for me. I've formated and reinstalled Windows 10. No other programs are installed except the lastest Nvidia driver (v497.09), Steam, and Windows 10 with all updates installed. That's as clean as you can get. It still fails to launch. Click to start Red Dead and the RockStar loading screen appears with the star logo flashing for about 15 seconds and then it crashes. Nothing else. This is a game I've been playing for months on this PC. What has changed??? The only factor remaining as far as I can tell is the RockStar launcher/social club. Let me know if there is something I'm missing. I would love to play this game again. And just for reference I've also tried Nvidia driver v472.12 which is the one that used to work.

There is your problem; you have yet to install your Hardware Drivers, Visual C++ Runtimes, DX Runtimes, dot-NET Framework; etc.

Also, with everything closed out, right click Steam shortcut, click Run As Admin. Always launch it this way. That will in-turn ensure that any 3rd party launchers, games, or even 3rd party extras that the game may need to install first; can run with proper privileges.

[six_peas]

Going out of my mind !! purchased thru Steam on sale 2 days ago. 2 days of errors. Try every tip, 2 days of internet search. I am having kittens from this !! FINDINGS ---- Rockstar Library IS the Problem, It will NOT install... to even be able to get to 'anti' Social-Club ..... for complete install. YOUR COMPUTER IS NOT THE ISSUE, LEAVE IT ALONE ( except use admin launch privileges ) ............ 1) wait it out ............ 2) refund thru steam ...................... Steam Refund Policy ....................
https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithGameIssue/?appid=1174180&issueid=701&transid=2897499500518681975&line_item=2897499500518681976 ..................... GTA and ALL @#$% star games are having the same issue

[six_peas]

YOUR COMPUTER IS NOT THE ISSUE, LEAVE IT ALONE ( except use admin launch privileges ) 1) wait it out 2) refund thru steam ( link above previous post )

[six_peas]

İlk olarak Ghost tarafından gönderildi:

It's the same for me. Nothing has worked. The game worked fine when I got it and I played it for a couple hours. The next day, Rockstar's launcher updated and it hasn't worked since. In my mind, that proves it's Rockstar's launcher that is broken and not my PC since that is the only thing that has changed. I'm going back to the Witcher 3 for the next month or however long it will be before they decide to fix this. Though I'm not hopeful about that.

................................. .................. I feel for you ........ yet read my previous posts .............. ease up Dude ........... Its @#$%Star problem not us
..........................

[bioman777]

When I try to play RDR2 story it tries opening Red dead online and says I don't own that game. I own the story mode. RDR2 not showing up in launcher and just the online shows up. This is on fresh install of windows and I originally lost all my rockstar games in the launcher and never got them back. They all say buy now. So I was forced to download crack versions of GTAV and RDR2 which is unacceptable. Rockstar has no intention of ever fixing this. You can check my steam to see I own everything rockstar has on steam.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

The launcher and the game works perfectly fine.
Yes sometimes R* SC service is down, but every service has to make time for maintenance, updates and such.