Game Won't Launch

[sav3m3pls]

I played Red Dead 2 without problems all up until the update. However, now when I go to click it from Steam it will say play, then when you click it, it will open the Rockstar Launcher and say loading, then reset and force close and go back to saying play. It's very frustrating I've tried to uninstall and re-install the game I don't know how many times, as well as verify the integrity of the game files, and hundreds of hours online and watching YouTube videos on how to fix it. I have to say it's very frustrating. I have Windows 10, can somebody please help? Rockstar has not responded to me with anything.

[Puppycat]

Cockstar ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiots, i have same trouble too, just bought game with discount

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Cause the game is not the issue.

Wipe everything off your PC for Rockstar Launcher and SocialClub.
This means uninstalling both of those.
When done, go to Documents and AppData; go inside both Rockstar Games folders; look for Launcher and SocialClub folders in each and delete those.

Then go to their website and download + install the latest Rockstar Launcher.

Log into that and tick Remember Me + Auto.

Launch the game from the Rockstar Launcher, not Steam.

You just want to have Steam Client already running.

IDK what update people keep talking about; RDR2 has not had any update since Sep 2022. When you see Rockstar games get around a 150MB update, that's just the launcher file included in the game folder. It did not update anything at all that your PC is using.

[Puppycat]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Cause the game is not the issue.

Wipe everything off your PC for Rockstar Launcher and SocialClub.

Then go to their website and download + install the latest Rockstar Launcher.

Log into that and tick Remember Me + Auto.

Launch the game from the Rockstar Launcher, not Steam.

You just want to have Steam Client already running.

Its easier to download this game from torrents, than deal with all this ♥♥♥♥, i just wanted to play story mode

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by Puppycat:

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Cause the game is not the issue.

Wipe everything off your PC for Rockstar Launcher and SocialClub.

Then go to their website and download + install the latest Rockstar Launcher.

Log into that and tick Remember Me + Auto.

Launch the game from the Rockstar Launcher, not Steam.

You just want to have Steam Client already running.

Its easier to download this game from torrents, than deal with all this ♥♥♥♥, i just wanted to play story mode

Then create your own thread and share the issues you are experiencing along with your full PC Specs & OS build. Then I could help you once I know that info.

[shadynasty]

If you're under 2 hours playtime and less than 2 weeks since purchase just refund it

[Puppycat]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Cause the game is not the issue.

Wipe everything off your PC for Rockstar Launcher and SocialClub.
This means uninstalling both of those.
When done, go to Documents and AppData; go inside both Rockstar Games folders; look for Launcher and SocialClub folders in each and delete those.

Then go to their website and download + install the latest Rockstar Launcher.

Log into that and tick Remember Me + Auto.

Launch the game from the Rockstar Launcher, not Steam.

You just want to have Steam Client already running.

IDK what update people keep talking about; RDR2 has not had any update since Sep 2022. When you see Rockstar games get around a 150MB update, that's just the launcher file included in the game folder. It did not update anything at all that your PC is using.

Actually, already did what you said, and it wont help, game doesnt start at all.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by Puppycat:

Actually, already did what you said, and it wont help, game doesnt start at all.

Do you understand how to troubleshoot anything or you just going to keep saying "Won't launch at all"

Many people have a ton of CRAP running in the background.
Close ALL THE CRAP.

Run Steam + Launcher + RDR2; nothing else and see how it does.

Turn Defender OFF; no background apps like MSI AB + RTSS; nothing.

Start with this.

That is not to say this is a must to get a game to launch properly, but you have to start somewhere.

When you launch RDR2 it can take MINUTES before the game screen actually loads up.

[Puppycat]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Originally posted by Puppycat:

Actually, already did what you said, and it wont help, game doesnt start at all.

Do you understand how to troubleshoot anything or you just going to keep saying "Won't launch at all"

Many people have a ton of CRAP running in the background.
Close ALL THE CRAP.

Run Steam + Launcher + RDR2; nothing else and see how it does.

Turn Defender OFF; no background apps like MSI AB + RTSS; nothing.

Start with this.

That is not to say this is a must to get a game to launch properly, but you have to start somewhere.

When you launch RDR2 it can take MINUTES before the game screen actually loads up.

I apreciate you trying to help, brother. Thank you a lot.

Sorry if i was rude, i just pissed off in fact i bought game in Steam, and it wont work "from the box". Thank you.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

There are some factors with RDR2 as well as plenty of other games.

For one, if you have 2 GPUs, like most PCs have now, then you will want to add the game exe files to the Graphics Settings listing in Win10/11 and set those to High Performance GPU so it never tries to use your onboard GPU.

If you are using 3rd party security, that can always be a factor as well. Even with Windows Defender, if the settings are too strict it might hinder certain apps or games from launching properly.

Windows Network = make sure this is set to Private, not Public. As this setting dictates what the OS will be using for Firewall Rules.

While RDR2 can work with MSI AB + RTSS in the background, if you have it on the default settings, then it might get in the way of RDR2 or other games launching properly.

Many are installing RDR2 through Steam and clicking Play through Steam; for RDR2 specifically please do not do that. As that relies on a saved login cookie from Rockstar; which if you've never done before will cause problems. Best practice there then would be to launch Steam and then launch Rockstar Launcher, then launch RDR2 from Rockstar Launcher.

When you launch RDR2 it will take approx 30-90 secs depending on speed of your system as it does a check using DXDIAG and such. You will notice RDR2.exe come up in Task Manager > Details. After that it may take a bit of time before the RDR2 black screen loads up. It always will load up with a black screen (small loading bar at the bottom) as this is the game doing some launch related GPU shader cache creating and loading.

On some Win10/11 PCs, some games might load but are auto minimized, so check for that if you see the game icon show down in lower taskbar.

[Shri☠Lorf]

bad motha your advice helped me out with similar launch problems on another thread. Closing steam then right clicking, run as admin worked for me. I had firewall exceptions already set. Thanks for helping people get this fixed! More than rockstar is doing w their doodoo launcher.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

This is due to people are putting game clients in their OS Startup.
When you do this those apps do not have Admin level priviledges when launching via OS Startup. They can't launch properly when OS Startup is used. So please, do yourselves a favor and stop allowing game clients/launchers to be launched that way. Instead put them on your Desktop as a shortcut, then when ready to use, right click the app and click Run As Admin. In OS' such as Win10/11 when you run a game client/launcher via that Run As Admin option, this will also carry over to games you launch from said client as well, which is often needed so the game can have proper write ability to various folders, which it might be denied otherwise.

[gatorboy789]

When I try to boot up Rdr2 it does the loading bar I hear 1 of the shots loaded and then it does nothing and then closes the app I have tried clearing the cache, deleting and reinstalling and launching in administrator and it still doesn't work I feel like I don't know what to do

FYI: I am in window 11 4060 TI and a Ryzen 7700 and also have never played in social only in story

please help

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You have an onboard GPU this is probably why.

Please refer to my Post #9 above