If the game won't start on Windows 8.1 (XAudio2_9.dll error)

[El Terrifico]

Since the game was released, the devs have apparently removed compatibility with systems other than Windows 10. This will cause the game to not start at all on Windows 8.1, when clicking the "play" button. And trying to start it through "BattleFleetGothic.exe" in the game directory, you will get a "missing XAudio2_9.dll" error message.

Fortunately, if you are on Windows 8.1 someone on the Age of Empires forum managed to find a solution, which also works for BG:A.

Original thread: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1017900/discussions/0/2763442118824570475/?l=finnish

1) go to your "Windows/System32" folder

2) copy the file "XAudio2_8.dll" paste it into this folder (Windows/System32).

3) change the name of the copied file to "XAudio2_9.dll", so that you end up with both "XAudio2_8.dll" and "XAudio2_9.dll" in your Windows/System32 folder.

Now the game should start normally.
And Kudos to the original poster for the solution.

(And sorry, I do not know if this also works for Windows 7).

[UnDebs]

I can confirm that this solves the issue with opening the game.

[Stefan]

thanks man. it works again

[El Terrifico]

Glad to be of help.

[John Silver]

El Terrifico, thank you very much for advice . Also faced this problem. Your advice helped. Now the game is working.

[El Terrifico]

Thank you too. Happy to know people are able to play. It's still a great game and well worth buying, especially during a sale.

[John Silver]

Originally posted by El Terrifico:

Thank you too. Happy to know people are able to play. It's still a great game and well worth buying, especially during a sale.

Completely agree with you. The game is just great. I have wanted to play both parts of these games for a long time, but, somehow, everything did not work out. And, here, yesterday, I literally stumbled on a discount on these games. Bought both games without hesitation. And so, here comes the problem. My friend told me that it's easier to return the game and request a refund, but I need this game. In the end, I bought it, not in order to return it later. I started looking for a solution to the issue, and then your advice showed a solution. Thanks to you. Good luck

[Red Star, Blood Moon]

Here be also another reason for why I try to download all my games, although I really should stop allowing any kind of updates, as it defeats the purpose. Here's an actual excellent example to exactly why you should never just rely on re-downloading a game, because even if it's still there it may not work now.

Hey, devs, we need to have some kind of availability to go back to older versions of a game, like how at least GalCiv III allowed us to reinstall the older version as the "beta" version, which is also because how they totally broke the farming in that game with updates. Disco Elysium is another great example, which I utterly refuse to update and still have a hidden copy of it on some flash drive in case somehow my copy on my main system on GOG gets updated. Keep your games downloaded and not updated.

I don't even care if it breaks the game on running multiplayer. We had the same problem even going back to Broodwars and then I could still just uninstall and reinstall my copy of Starcraft from CD if the newest battlenet update sucked.

[El Terrifico]

I fully agree, and it's even more frustrating in this case, because it's such a minor issue which can be solved so easily..

They haven't even bothered to change the store page. The game is still advertised as being compatible with Win 7 and 8.1.
Now, I am fairly sure that this is not intentional and simply the result of an embarrassingly high degree of sloppiness - still, even if they are not patching it, they should at least take the time to write an official guide on how to repair this issue (instead of the community having to do that).

[Johnny Thunder]

Originally posted by El Terrifico:

I fully agree, and it's even more frustrating in this case, because it's such a minor issue which can be solved so easily..

They haven't even bothered to change the store page. The game is still advertised as being compatible with Win 7 and 8.1.
Now, I am fairly sure that this is not intentional and simply the result of an embarrassingly high degree of sloppiness - still, even if they are not patching it, they should at least take the time to write an official guide on how to repair this issue (instead of the community having to do that).

it's intentional. 99% sure MS is paying developers to intentionally break win 7 (and 8.1 i guess) compatibility. Diablo 2 resurrection used to have minor hacks that allowed it to work on win7 and bliz went out of their way to render them useless.

[Red Star, Blood Moon]

Originally posted by Johnny Thunder:

Originally posted by El Terrifico:

I fully agree, and it's even more frustrating in this case, because it's such a minor issue which can be solved so easily..

They haven't even bothered to change the store page. The game is still advertised as being compatible with Win 7 and 8.1.
Now, I am fairly sure that this is not intentional and simply the result of an embarrassingly high degree of sloppiness - still, even if they are not patching it, they should at least take the time to write an official guide on how to repair this issue (instead of the community having to do that).

it's intentional. 99% sure MS is paying developers to intentionally break win 7 (and 8.1 i guess) compatibility. Diablo 2 resurrection used to have minor hacks that allowed it to work on win7 and bliz went out of their way to render them useless.

Why not just buy and install the CD then? Like ♥♥♥♥ I am giving Activision Blizzard any of my money at all, let alone paying for a 20 year old game. Seriously ♥♥♥♥ those people I bet not a single one of anyone involved with Diablo II even works for that subdivision of Activision anymore.

[VFR6]

I had the same problem playing on Win7. I can now, but I forgot what kind of solution I followed. I know I add some files to BGA's install directory. It was XInput1_4.dll but, I forgot where I was supposed to put it. I found the file on several folders in the install directory though. And the game is working.

[PestilentCorpse]

Originally posted by El Terrifico:

Since the game was released, the devs have apparently removed compatibility with systems other than Windows 10. This will cause the game to not start at all on Windows 8.1, when clicking the "play" button. And trying to start it through "BattleFleetGothic.exe" in the game directory, you will get a "missing XAudio2_9.dll" error message.

Fortunately, if you are on Windows 8.1 someone on the Age of Empires forum managed to find a solution, which also works for BG:A.

Original thread: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1017900/discussions/0/2763442118824570475/?l=finnish

1) go to your "Windows/System32" folder

2) copy the file "XAudio2_8.dll" paste it into this folder (Windows/System32).

3) change the name of the copied file to "XAudio2_9.dll", so that you end up with both "XAudio2_8.dll" and "XAudio2_9.dll" in your Windows/System32 folder.

Now the game should start normally.
And Kudos to the original poster for the solution.

(And sorry, I do not know if this also works for Windows 7).

So this worked 100%!!! awesome thank you.

[El Terrifico]

Glad to be of help :)

[ScareCrow369]

Totally NOT going to do the job of the devs if it's broken then oh well there's far better games out there than this.

[El Terrifico]

It does work on other games with this issue as well.