Game is crashing every time I try to start it.

[Jag133]

Hello. Every time I try to start the Planet Zoo game, it crashes. Will there be a fix for this soon? It's been like this for a while.

[HeatherG]

Have you updated your graphics drivers. It's one thing that people have had success with.

[grampers62]

More info on your computer would help diagnose the issue.
CPU, ram, graphics card and graphics driver date would get us started.
All can be found in steam under help/system info.

[Nioell]

Also do you try to load it several times in a row? I have that weird bug sometimes where I start it then it crashes when it should load the globe and when I start it again after that it works just fine. Still couldn't figure out what it is but my PC is way abvoe rec specs and everything is up to date as well, so yeah, prob something going on with the game itself.

You can also try to verify your files via steam, maybe that'll help.

[sarahstar]

I'm having the same problem! All my drivers, etc are all up-to-date, and it loaded fine last time I played but today - NOPE, won't open from Steam or from my desktop shortcut, just crashes straight away.... HELP gratefully received!

[🐺Blue Wolf]

If you can reach the main menu at all, try switching it to windowed mode (or I believe add the following to the launch options: -windowed :. Didn't have crashes, but my game kept minimizing and wouldn't open. Eventually got it to launch, changed it to windowed mode and it's been fine since. Don't like playing in windowed mode but it seems to have fixed my issue at least.

[sarahstar]

thanks Veles, sadly I don't even get that far - literally, I hit the icon to load the game and all I get is the crash report window. Verified the game files, rebooted, etc - just the same. If I ever manage to get the game to open to the menu I will definitely try what you recommend though!

[Jim]

I'm having this same issue. Only this game, all my drivers are updated and I uninstalled ans re-installed.

[🐺Blue Wolf]

A few other things you might want to give a try if you haven't already;

1. Try running the .exe file as Admin as shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTYYNx-oGYw

1a. This link sort of mentions that as well: https://respawnfirst.com/planet-zoo-crash-at-startup-fix/ (go to the "Game Not Launching, Crash At Startup Fix" part).

2. Disable Steam Overlay. I had to do this since I'm on Linux and it causes many of my games to either not boot, crash or just run poorly. It *might* be an issue on Windows as well for some games.

3. Verify Game files. I think this only ever helped fixed an issue for me once, but always worth a try.

4. If you have programs like an anti-virus or even discord running, quit/close them and see if they were the cause. Do this for pretty much any program you don't really need running, just to see which if any might cause the crashing.

[Jim]

None of that works, it seems to only be happening on the same company games. Planet Zoo, Planet Coaster and Jurassic Park all have the same issue, but CK3 and Far Cry 5 work fine.

[Jag133]

I'm trying some things now. I'll let ya know what happens. Thanks

[Jag133]

Originally posted by Veles:

A few other things you might want to give a try if you haven't already;

1. Try running the .exe file as Admin as shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTYYNx-oGYw

1a. This link sort of mentions that as well: https://respawnfirst.com/planet-zoo-crash-at-startup-fix/ (go to the "Game Not Launching, Crash At Startup Fix" part).

2. Disable Steam Overlay. I had to do this since I'm on Linux and it causes many of my games to either not boot, crash or just run poorly. It *might* be an issue on Windows as well for some games.

3. Verify Game files. I think this only ever helped fixed an issue for me once, but always worth a try.

4. If you have programs like an anti-virus or even discord running, quit/close them and see if they were the cause. Do this for pretty much any program you don't really need running, just to see which if any might cause the crashing.

I just tried this twice and it did not work.

[Jag133]

Originally posted by HeatherG:

Have you updated your graphics drivers. It's one thing that people have had success with.

My husband just built this computer and I believe everything is up to date. He is more techy than I am though, so I would have to ask him about updating the graphics drivers.

[HeatherG]

I mentioned the graphics card update because they seem to be updating them every few weeks, Personally that why mine crashed every 2 minutes until a friend said I had to manually update it. I check the version of my card every 3-4 weeks.

Hopefully you can find a fix...soon.

[grampers62]

HeatherG is correct. On most of the 20 and 30 series cards there seems to be an issue where one must remove the Nvidia drivers and G-force experience through windows remove apps. Not to worry your computer will still run in low graphics. Then download and install the latest drivers.

[Jim]

Originally posted by grampers62:

HeatherG is correct. On most of the 20 and 30 series cards there seems to be an issue where one must remove the Nvidia drivers and G-force experience through windows remove apps. Not to worry your computer will still run in low graphics. Then download and install the latest drivers.

Tried this. Rolled back my graphics card to an April update and the same issue.

I feel like I've literally tried everything and any google searches it seems like people just completely gave up or the game randomly starts working months later.

Things I've tried:

- Updated graphics card to newest drivers
- Rolled back graphics card drivers to "last known good"
- Turned off all controller settings
- Unplugged all non-essential devices
- Updated C++ drivers
- Turned off anti-virus/firewall
- Ran in admin mode
- Verify integrity
- Uninstall, reinstall
- Turned off overlays
- Turned off (and even unistalled) all programs operating in background
- Uninstalled and reinstalled service packs
- There was a fix I saw that involved going into steamapps and deleting the Planet Zoo file, but when it's uninstalled, the file seems to disappear as well, which is weird because all my uninstalled steam games still have folders in steamapps.
- Unsubscribed from all mods.


Nothing is working. I have an RTX 2070 Super and the thing can tear through any game. All my other games work except for PZ and Frontier's other two games, Planet Coaster and Jurassic Park Evolved. Looks like it's a Frontier Developments issue and it's really frustrating. I spent my whole day off trying to get this dumb game to work. Joke's on me I guess.