Red Dead Redemption 2’s launch on the PC wasn’t without problems, with one glaring show-stopping issue that prevented some gamers (including us) from enjoying the game, but that bug has now been fixed – at least Rockstar claims.
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The gremlin was addressed by an update to the Rockstar Launcher, with the patch to version 1.0.9.164 applying a bunch of fixes including the resolution of the ‘Rockstar Games Launcher exited unexpectedly’ error message we were encountering (along with plenty of others).
The full list of fixes is as follows:
- Fixed an issue that resulted in the Rockstar Games Launcher returning the error "The Rockstar Games Launcher failed to initialize" on startup
- Fixed an issue that resulted in the Rockstar Games Launcher preload decryption getting stuck and not completing
- Fixed an issue that resulted in the Rockstar Games Launcher returning the error "The Rockstar Games Launcher exited unexpectedly" when launching Red Dead Redemption 2
- Fixed an issue that resulted in crashes when starting the Rockstar Games Launcher from the Epic Games Launcher
- Fixed an issue that resulted in the Rockstar Games Launcher returning the error "Unable to launch game, please verify your game data" when launching Red Dead Redemption 2 from the Epic Games Launcher
The bad news, though, is that at least according to a lot of posts on Reddit and Twitter, this fix isn’t curing the ’exited unexpectedly’ issue for some.
Further troubleshooting
Rockstar Support on Twitter advises that if you are still encountering problems, you should create a support ticket (opens in new tab) to get some one-on-one troubleshooting tips (you can sign in and file a crash or bug report at the official support site).
For those continuing to be unable to play the game a day after launch, this is obviously a highly frustrating situation, and we’ve certainly seen a fair bit of chatter online about refunds from these rightly disgruntled gamers.
Meanwhile, those who can play Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC can already enjoy a bunch of mods including a nifty time-saver along with several efforts that promise improved visuals, and also get into all the available Red Dead Redemption 2 cheats.
Via PC Gamer (opens in new tab)