Launch Failing

[Pixel Pirate]

Does anyone know why my game will not launch anymore and instead gives me a bugsplat where it says that steam ran into an issue and AoE needs to close? I have tried many common fixes like verifying game files, reinstalling both the game files and steam, updating drivers and the like. Anyone know why this is happening? The only change was an auto update a couple weeks ago and before that it ran well.

[MegaNoob]

I have a similiar issue

[frank_ladner]

I do have the same issue since I have updated to the latest Windows 11 version which is 24H2.

The game shows the start screen and crashes then with an error message:
The graphics system could not be initialized.
Please ensure that your graphics card meets the minimum requirements:
CreateSwapChain() failed!
HRESULT=0x887a0005"

I am running a Victus laptop with I5 and Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU.

I tried directx 11 and some configuration changes without any positive results.

Anyone with an idea?

[frank_ladner]

After rollback to the previous Windows 11 version 23H2 AoE II DE is running fine again.

[Dark Stanley]

I ran into the same issue, but found that after disabling fullscreen optimizations the game was working fine again.

So, if you cannot (or don't want to) roll back, here is what I did:

1. In your Steam libarary right click on AoE2 and select browse local files
2. Find the AoE2DE_s.exe (might becalled AoE2EN_s.exe or something like that on your device)
3. Right click on the exe and select properties
4. In the properties window open the compatibility tab and tick the box to deactivate fullscreen optimizations
5. Click on apply and run the game from your Steam library

[bkNight]

Thx Dark Stanley, saved me a lot of time.

[Wise Turtle]

THx Stan! Worked for me as well. Had the problem since yesterday after a new windows update when I tried launching the game on my laptop without my external monitor.