Unable to boot up the game after clicking 'play' on the launcher

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Technical Support
1

Issue Description:
Hey so i’m still having the issue where my game won’t start after clicking play on the launcher. I’ve read (and tried) all solutions on the forums involving the ‘run as administator’ issue but none of it is working to resolve it.

I’ve reinstalled the game 2 times (in different folders as well just in case). Validated files numerous times as well as restarted my PC plenty of times and it’s s till not working.

After i click the ‘play’ button on the launch menu the game won’t start up but whenever i check my taskmanager it says that darktide.exe is running but is nowhere to be found

Crash Report (If Applicable):
My game doesn’t give a crash report when booting up.

Error Displayed (If Applicable):
There’s no error display after trying to launch the game.

Steps to Reproduce:
[Please add the steps that can help our QA department in reproducing the issue. For example:]

  1. Launch the game via Microsoft store with access to GamePass
  2. Launcher opens → click play to launch the game
  3. A pop-up with ‘Loading shader cashe’ opens and starts loading
  4. ‘Loading shader cashe’ finishes and closes
  5. Game is supposed to launch after this but nothing happens.
  6. Open task manager to check if the game is running.
  7. Darktide.exe and Launcher.exe are running (not crashed or frozen) but nowhere to be found

Mission Name (If Applicable):
Not Applicable

Platform:
Microsoft Store (Game Pass)

Player ID:
Microsoft Store Tag: MrScare#1434

Approx. Time of Issue & Timezone:
Unsure of the exact date this first occured but it must have been around the time the patch which added crafting was released
[GMT +1 / CEST]

Reproduction Rate:
Constant (100%)

Upload Supporting Evidence:
[Screenshots, recordings, links to Twitch VODs, etc.]

Screenshot of my task manager after having launcher the game where it won’t show up after trying to start it.

image
image667×592 34.9 KB

Upload Console Log:

This is the most recent log i was able to find. Not sure if any other log would provide better information
console-2023-03-04-10.37.10-162d775e-dd13-4594-9e5f-1955aaaa1dc3.log (1.6 KB)

Upload darktide_launcher.log:

darktide_launcher.log (98.3 KB)

2

Just wanted to say I have this issue too after the latest patch.
I click Play from Xbox Game Pass. The Dark Tide windows pops up with Loading Game…
Then it loads for a while but nothing happens and the window just closes itself.
I reinstalled the game but the issue is still there. Also did a clean install of GPU drivers and ofc rebooted the PC.
If I uninstall the game and reinstall it I can play but after some time starting / closing the game it wont start anymore
Can I please migrate over my account to Steam or something? So tired of Gamepass issues!

3

Played fine yesterday after a 2:nd reinstall of the game and I played some today.
Now when I try to launch the game again it just says Starting Game… and then it gives up.
No error messages or anything. Rebooted PC still same issue.

Edit:
I tried launching the game from D:\XboxGames\Warhammer 40,000- Darktide\Content with the start_protected_game.exe and then it starts fine

4

Tried to launch it with the start_protected_game.exe. Shows a pop-up that the game si starting up for a split second which then dissapears and the game won’t launch.

At this point i am so annoyed by how this game has been after launch i want to transfer my account away from game pass as it’s just working horribly

5

Could you see if you can load in after a ‘Selective Startup’, please?:

  1. Press the Windows key
  2. Type ‘msconfig’ and select ‘System Configuration’
  3. On the ‘General’ tab, select ‘Selective Startup’
  4. Deselect ‘Load Startup Items’
  5. Reboot your PC
  6. Launch as normal, and see if the issue persists
6

Hi and thanks for your response,

I’ve tried the solution you mentioned and unfortunately nothing has changed
image

When i opened this screen before making any changes ‘selective startup’ was already selected. Not sure if that has any impact but with unselecting ‘load startup items’, rebooting my PC and trying to launch the game it will still not boot up after the launcher.

7

As another sidenote i failed to mention in my other comment. Task manager now shows darktide as a Background Process instead of being an App. I am not 100% sure this happened after changing the ‘load startup items’ but this is definitely my first time seeing it like this.

8

Could you make sure ‘IObit Malware Fighter Scan…’ is disabled prior to launching?

9

First suggestion didnt work for me either and this IObit Malware Fighter I dont have installed.

Edit:
Seems you guys pushed an update cause I got randomly kicked out in the middle of a mission with the the text “Sorry your mission was aborted by an unexpected error” and now Im getting “Your game is out of date” when I try to launch the game through the .exe file
When I try to update the game in Xbox game pass I just got some random error that it fails to update:
Error code: 0x80070005 so now Im unable to play at all since I cant use the .exe shortcut.

Just awesome.
I uninstalled Xbox game pass and reinstalled it. Same issue with the update not going through.

So can I move to Steam yet? Can I bring my stuff?

Edit2: I deleted everything related to Darktide, manually deleted the folders in the Xbox install folder and then I was able to re-download the entire game for like a 4th or 5th time now and the update went through and the launch button worked so maybe Im back to step1 where the launch button will eventually stop working and I might have to try to launch from the .exe file again

10

Turned off my malware protection before launching and there is no difference when trying to launch.

11

I think we might have the incorrect darktide_launcher.log from the Beta period. Please could you upload the log using the instructions below?:

  1. Press the Windows key + R
  2. Enter %appdata% within the search input and select ‘OK’
  3. Navigate to AppData\Roaming\Fatshark\MicrosoftStore\Darktide
  4. Locate the darktide_launcher.log in this directory
12

image

darktide_launcher.log (846.0 KB)

Hope this is the correct one

13

Hey it’s been some days and i haven’t heard much from you anymore. I replied with another launcher log and i’m still hoping for a way to fix my game as i am still unable to properly play the game

14

Is there a possibility to transfer my belongings and account to the steam servers if the problem persists and i won’t ever be able to play on Xbox Game Pass?

15

I’ve basically been having the same issues but I bought the game on steam a couple weeks back, and since then I haven’t been able to play the game because of this reason, when you press play it says its running for around 5 seconds before it just stops nothing loads, went through the admin and antivirus steps and those didn’t work with the closest i got to playing being the “start protected game” option in the local files but doing so automatically gives me a backend error so the furthest i got in Darktide was the launch menu.
Putting this here to say that this is an issue that’s occurring on steam as well/when you have a full purchase of the game

16

I’ve also been having the same problem on Steam. I’ve tried all the solutions above and am still unable to start the game past the launcher. The issue started on the evening of March 11th after I had been successfully playing for a couple of hours. I was logged out due to inactivity and I haven’t been able to restart the game since. Log attached.

darktide_launcher.log (1.0 MB)

17

Sorry for the delay on this - I did need the reminder. Could you try wiping Darktide’s AppData completely?

  1. Press the Windows key + R
  2. Enter %appdata% within the search input and select ‘OK’
  3. Navigate to AppData\Roaming\Fatshark\MicrosoftStore
  4. Delete the entire Darktide directory

Please bear in mind this may wipe any custom options and your keybindings. Your progress will not be impacted as it’s stored on our end.

18

Yes! this finally worked! my launcher acted like this was the first time ever i started it up and the game is now properly launching afterwards!

Thanks a lot!!