Can't launch the game - Disk write error

[Finalninjadog]

I'll start by saying: I'm a big AC fan, and I've been waiting for years for a Japanese game, so if any haters comment on this and try to steer me away from playing the game, they will be ignored/disregarded. I'm only a few hours into the game, yes I know it's buggy and lags too much during cutscenes or when riding fast between locations on horseback. But I'm determined to get this fixed and keep playing the game.

Onto the issue:
I was able to play the game just fine last weekend (after a lengthy installation process), but since a couple days ago, whenever I try to launch & play it, I get
'Assassins Creed Shadows.
An error occurred while launching this game: Disk write error -
(file path of where my game is installed)'

I've tried following a bunch of videos & support pages on how to fix this (running Steam as administrator/compatibility mode, clearing cache, repairing library etc), but so far nothing is working. I think there was a patch update which broke the game as I'm able to play other games okay. But since I purchased this through Steam, I can't even launch it via Uplay without running into the same issue. I'm currently re-installing the game (annoyingly) to a different drive/folder in the hopes this helps

Any advice on actually how to fix the issue would be appreciated.

[Finalninjadog]

To make matters worse. I've just reinstalled it, to a different drive. Now when I try to launch it, it doesn't even launch at all. I click to play it on steam and it starts trying to launch it and then just shows the green 'play' button.

This new patch has completely broken the game!

[Bramble]

Same and there doesn't seem to be any fix coming for us sadly

[cardmaster16]

Bramble님이 먼저 게시:

Same and there doesn't seem to be any fix coming for us sadly

so we just have to wait for a bug patch? I'm glad it is just the game, I thought my computer was busted

[Finalninjadog]

I guess so, I'm contacting Ubisoft support to report the issue with them, but who knows how long it'll take to get fixed

[Finalninjadog]

Just got a response from Ubisoft about 5-10mins after submitting my support case request:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ubi-Behemoth @Ubisoft Support wrote: 30/03/2025 @ 17:39
Hello there,

Thank you for contacting Ubisoft Support.

We highly appreciate your support and that you've been a fan of the series for a long time!

I'm sorry to hear that you're getting a disk error when launching Assassin's Creed Shadows, We'll gladly look into that for you.

The development team is aware of the issue and are currently investigating. Please try marking the game .exe file as an exception in your Antivirus and Firewall settings. If this does not resolve the issue, we appreciate your patience and understanding while team investigates and apologize for any inconvenience in the meantime.

Please note the team is aware that the game has some bugs and they're working on releasing patches that will fix that in the future.

If you need further assistance or have any other questions, please feel free to contact us at any time. We're here to help.

Kind regards,
Ubi-Behemoth
Ubisoft Support

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm pretty sure my game is already allowed through my firewall, so this doesn't help me. But just posting here in case it benefits anyone else.

[Finalninjadog]

Update from Ubisoft after they closed my case and I responded saying that the issue wasn't resolved:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ubi-Lighthearted Looter @Ubisoft Support wrote:
02/04/2025 @ 08:36
Hey there,

Thanks for reporting back to us and sorry to hear the issue persists. Please be informed we have yet to have any new information on this for a fix.

As much as I want to give an exact estimation on when a fix is given, this information is not provided to us. If it's any consolation, I have followed up with our development team to push up the fix date if possible and I can see that they still currently working on it.

For now, I can only hope for your continued cooperation and patiences.

(NOTE> Case may close automatically, but it does not mean total case closure. We will update you when we more information from our team.)

If you have any more questions, please let us know.

Best regards,
Ubi-Lighthearted Looter
Ubisoft Support

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Ubi-Ineradicable]

Hello everyone and sorry for the long wait for a response.

I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with launching the game. If you are receiving any error messages, please share screenshots. To resolve the issue, I recommend performing technical troubleshooting[ubi.li] first. If the issue persists, please perform all the following steps:

- Make sure that the Ubisoft Connect PC is not being blocked[ubi.li] by any security software you have, such as a firewall or anti-virus.

- Perform a DISM/SFC [ubi.li] scan on your PC, as this will identify and repair any potential issues with your operating system.

- Ensure that your Monitor's DPI[ubi.li] settings are set to default/native value. It can sometimes cause issues with the game if the value is set to a higher or lower.

- Try testing the game on a new Windows profile[ubi.li] to rule out any potential issues with your current profile.

- If you have additional peripherals such as a steering wheel or a foot pedal connected to your PC, please unplug everything apart from the mouse/keyboard and test the game.

- Disable Steam Input: go to Steam, open your game library, right click on your game, go to Properties, then Controller and in "Override" section choose "Disable Steam Input".

Please let us know if the issue persists.

[Finalninjadog]

Ubi-Ineradicable님이 먼저 게시:

Hello everyone and sorry for the long wait for a response.

I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with launching the game. If you are receiving any error messages, please share screenshots. To resolve the issue, I recommend performing technical troubleshooting[ubi.li] first. If the issue persists, please perform all the following steps:

- Make sure that the Ubisoft Connect PC is not being blocked[ubi.li] by any security software you have, such as a firewall or anti-virus.

- Perform a DISM/SFC [ubi.li] scan on your PC, as this will identify and repair any potential issues with your operating system.

- Ensure that your Monitor's DPI[ubi.li] settings are set to default/native value. It can sometimes cause issues with the game if the value is set to a higher or lower.

- Try testing the game on a new Windows profile[ubi.li] to rule out any potential issues with your current profile.

- If you have additional peripherals such as a steering wheel or a foot pedal connected to your PC, please unplug everything apart from the mouse/keyboard and test the game.

- Disable Steam Input: go to Steam, open your game library, right click on your game, go to Properties, then Controller and in "Override" section choose "Disable Steam Input".

Please let us know if the issue persists.

Tried all the above steps, none of them worked. When I created a new windows account (which I now can't seem to remove), it asked me to sign into Ubisoft connect, tried launching the game and then did the exact same thing with the crashing and Steam acting like I've played the game today.

Switched back to my main account and tried launching it. Got an error:
'Assassin's Creed Shadows
An error occurred while launching this game: Missing game executable - (file path of game)'

Tried to launch the game via the desktop shortcut, and now got the same issue as before with the disk write error.

It's extremely disappointing given that today's update has done absolutely nothing to fix the game, and I am on the verge of demanding my money back, despite having 3hrs in the game already (which I presume keeps increasing every time I try to launch it). If this doesn't get fixed soon, then I will be wanting a refund.

[Ubi-Ineradicable]

Finalninjadog님이 먼저 게시:

Ubi-Ineradicable님이 먼저 게시:

Hello everyone and sorry for the long wait for a response.

I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with launching the game. If you are receiving any error messages, please share screenshots. To resolve the issue, I recommend performing technical troubleshooting[ubi.li] first. If the issue persists, please perform all the following steps:

- Make sure that the Ubisoft Connect PC is not being blocked[ubi.li] by any security software you have, such as a firewall or anti-virus.

- Perform a DISM/SFC [ubi.li] scan on your PC, as this will identify and repair any potential issues with your operating system.

- Ensure that your Monitor's DPI[ubi.li] settings are set to default/native value. It can sometimes cause issues with the game if the value is set to a higher or lower.

- Try testing the game on a new Windows profile[ubi.li] to rule out any potential issues with your current profile.

- If you have additional peripherals such as a steering wheel or a foot pedal connected to your PC, please unplug everything apart from the mouse/keyboard and test the game.

- Disable Steam Input: go to Steam, open your game library, right click on your game, go to Properties, then Controller and in "Override" section choose "Disable Steam Input".

Please let us know if the issue persists.

Tried all the above steps, none of them worked. When I created a new windows account (which I now can't seem to remove), it asked me to sign into Ubisoft connect, tried launching the game and then did the exact same thing with the crashing and Steam acting like I've played the game today.

Switched back to my main account and tried launching it. Got an error:
'Assassin's Creed Shadows
An error occurred while launching this game: Missing game executable - (file path of game)'

Tried to launch the game via the desktop shortcut, and now got the same issue as before with the disk write error.

It's extremely disappointing given that today's update has done absolutely nothing to fix the game, and I am on the verge of demanding my money back, despite having 3hrs in the game already (which I presume keeps increasing every time I try to launch it). If this doesn't get fixed soon, then I will be wanting a refund.

Thank you for the information. I'm sorry to hear that the issue still persists. According to the error message "An error occurred while launching this game: Missing game executable", I assume that your antivirus, firewall, or similar software might have deleted or blocked the .exe file of the game, mistakenly identifying it as a virus. If you have any such software, I recommend temporarily disabling it, adding the .exe file to the whitelist and restart the PC. Then, please verify the game files.[ubi.li]
Please let us know the results.

[Finalninjadog]

Ubi-Ineradicable님이 먼저 게시:

Finalninjadog님이 먼저 게시:

Tried all the above steps, none of them worked. When I created a new windows account (which I now can't seem to remove), it asked me to sign into Ubisoft connect, tried launching the game and then did the exact same thing with the crashing and Steam acting like I've played the game today.

Switched back to my main account and tried launching it. Got an error:
'Assassin's Creed Shadows
An error occurred while launching this game: Missing game executable - (file path of game)'

Tried to launch the game via the desktop shortcut, and now got the same issue as before with the disk write error.

It's extremely disappointing given that today's update has done absolutely nothing to fix the game, and I am on the verge of demanding my money back, despite having 3hrs in the game already (which I presume keeps increasing every time I try to launch it). If this doesn't get fixed soon, then I will be wanting a refund.

Thank you for the information. I'm sorry to hear that the issue still persists. According to the error message "An error occurred while launching this game: Missing game executable", I assume that your antivirus, firewall, or similar software might have deleted or blocked the .exe file of the game, mistakenly identifying it as a virus. If you have any such software, I recommend temporarily disabling it, adding the .exe file to the whitelist and restart the PC. Then, please verify the game files.[ubi.li]
Please let us know the results.

Tried all of that. There's no obvious or easy way to verify game files on Ubisoft Connect, but I did it via Steam instead.

The .exe file was allowed through the firewall. I disabled firewall & antivirus, restarted my PC. Tried to launch the game. It said 'Running install script', 'Launching executable' and then the 'Play' button appeared again.

One thing I noticed whilst troubleshooting yesterday. The .exe file didn't appear to be in there in my program files. However, it is there today.

I've also tried all of the steps suggested here:
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198140400694/recommended/3159330

[Ubi-Vinci]

Really sorry to hear that you tried all these steps to no avail, Finalninjadog.

Please generate DxDiag and MsInfo system reports[www.ubisoft.com] and reach out to us via:

Ubisoft Discord [discord.com]

[harryhar38]

I also had experienced the same thing after patch 1.02 broke the game. I am using Avast Antivirus and this confirmed to be the main culprit as it deleted the exe file. What I did is right click on my antivirus app, select quarantine, find AC Shadows.exe on the list and click restore & add into exception. Works for me :)

[Finalninjadog]

harryhar38님이 먼저 게시:

I also had experienced the same thing after patch 1.02 broke the game. I am using Avast Antivirus and this confirmed to be the main culprit as it deleted the exe file. What I did is right click on my antivirus app, select quarantine, find AC Shadows.exe on the list and click restore & add into exception. Works for me :)

I tried that (I use Avast Antivirus too) but it didn't work :( The file location on the first drive I installed the game was removed when I uninstalled, so I could only allow the .exe file from the second drive, restore & add exception and overrite the file that was already in that drive. Still having the same issues :(

[Ubi-Vinci]

Hey Finalninjadog

Thank you for the update and sorry to hear it.

I would still advise you to disables and close completely Avast and fully reinstall the game.
Select one location on an SSD with ample free space for it.

This will ensure no files are missing and nothing has been false removed/quarantined by your antivirus software.

[Finalninjadog]

Ubi-Vinci님이 먼저 게시:

Hey Finalninjadog

Thank you for the update and sorry to hear it.

I would still advise you to disables and close completely Avast and fully reinstall the game.
Select one location on an SSD with ample free space for it.

This will ensure no files are missing and nothing has been false removed/quarantined by your antivirus software.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the game to a completely different drive, and have also tried disabling Avast. Nothing's changed. Plus, when I first installed the game with Avast running, I was able to access the game no problem.

The issue is that the 1.0.1 update broke the game, not my PC, firewall, antivirus etc.

I appreciate yours and your colleague's help. But it is through sheer determination to play the game that I am still entertaining all these troubleshooting tips which are causing issues for my PC as time goes on, interfering with other games and other processes. But right now I feel that I've wasted £60 on a game that should have been fixed of bugs like this before it was even released.