Activation Error

[Osmium]

When I load the game it gives me a screen that says:
"Activation Error
Your social club account is not entitled to Red Dead Redemption 2.
Please verify your internet connection and restart the game.
If this issue persists, please contact Rockstar Games Customer Support."

I went to the Rockstar website and the game is listed in my account. I just bought this off of steam last week and haven't had any issues like this before with any other games with additional DRM. Is this something only their tech support can handle or is this a standard problem with a known workaround?

[Fegelein Antics]

same

[Guiiro]

Same problem

[Zy]

same, probably is server issue?

[Megas Doux]

Yup! Same problem here.

[NeMSiLdada]

same

[Ugge]

Use VPN or DNS software like 1.1.1.1 then open Rockstar Game Launcher -> login and keep it open. After that launch the game from steam. It worked for me.

[JohnMars78]

Rockstar Game Launcher runs before game starts but it doesn't log in to your Social Club account (expired credentials).
Run the said Rockstar Game Launcher and sign in (with 'remember me' and 'auto sign in' active) before running the game.

[Osmium]

Originally posted by JohnMars78:

Rockstar Game Launcher runs before game starts but it doesn't log in to your Social Club account (expired credentials).
Run the said Rockstar Game Launcher and sign in (with 'remember me' and 'auto sign in' active) before running the game.

I tried that and a half dozen other potential fixes and nothing worked. I did some digging and this issue is over 4 years old. I ended up on a Reddit thread that said that something about e-cores or p-cores on my modern CPU was causing the issue with Rockstar's DRM and the fix was to do something extremely CPU intensive every time I open the game, like winzip an 80Gb file. There were other things like starting steam in offline mode and jumping through specific hoops with the launcher, but that also had to be done *every* time the game was launched... and it didn't work for me.

At that point I simply refunded the game before I spent over 2 hours in-game time trying to troubleshoot it and ended up ineligible. I've never refunded something on Steam before despite having over a thousand games in my library, but this is exactly what refunds are for. I kinda wanted to check out RDR2, but not this badly. This is just absurd. Good luck everyone!

[rezkyna.d]

similar problem , just restart the steam

[lttrbx]

Originally posted by JohnMars78:

Rockstar Game Launcher runs before game starts but it doesn't log in to your Social Club account (expired credentials).
Run the said Rockstar Game Launcher and sign in (with 'remember me' and 'auto sign in' active) before running the game.

That fix doesn't work, when the launcher can't connect to Rockstar's Social Club despite altering DNS settings etc.

THEY need to fix this, not us.

[JohnMars78]

It's a possible solution. Obviously not a fix since it doesn't work.
I'm sorry it didn't but just because the launcher on your PC can't connect doesn't mean there's anything to fix on their side.

I wouldn't know of Intel CPUs p-cores/e-cores affecting Rockstar's DRM (been running on AMD for quite a few years), but I'm sure those weren't the issue 4 years ago since they weren't on the market at the time.

[Eshe]

same

[Guiiro]

With this I was able to enter the game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtVFbqQz6qE&ab_channel=MertSoftware

[MaraG]

the same problem. got any idea what can help this?

[jbctattoo]

had the same problem guys it worked for me reset your rockstar password and login to launcher again than launch the game from launcher