It’s a general rule of thumb nowadays that most AAA games with a major online component will inevitably face difficulties on launch day. Destiny 2: Shadowkeep and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare were recent examples of this, wracked by server troubles and console crashes, and now it looks like the rule is now in effect for the much-anticipated PC launch of Red Dead Redemption 2.
Fans of Rockstar Games’ cowboy epic have been chomping at the bit to see the game come to the platform ever since it launched for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One a year ago. Today, they finally got what they want, but in a cruel twist, a growing number of players have been finding Red Dead Redemption 2 crashing at the first loading screen, booting them out of the game before they can even get in.
According to IGN, this has happened most often when players try to launch the game from the recently-introduced Rockstar Games Launcher. Upon clicking “Play,” they are instead greeted with a pop-up message that reads, “The Rockstar Games Launcher exited unexpectedly.” But on the plus side, Rockstar has been looking into the issue all day and has managed to figure out the most common source of the Launcher error: “out of date graphics drivers.”
Better yet, Rockstar says players should be able to fix this issue affecting the PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2 easily enough by updating their drivers and running RDR2.exe as an administrator in the Rockstar Launcher. That last part might be a tad daunting for players who aren’t used to digging through game file options, but Rockstar offered a step-by-step guide on how to do it, and it goes as follows:
1.Open the Rockstar Games Launcher
2.Select Settings
3.Select Red Dead Redemption 2 under My installed games
4.Select Open under View Installation Folder
5.Right-Click on RDR2
6.Select Properties
7.Under the Compatibility Tab
8.Select Run this Program as an Administrator and Disable Full Screen Optimization
9.Click OK
Follow those steps, and odds are players should be able to get to exploring the old west and getting up to multiplayer mischief in Red Dead Online. If, however, players continue to face loading issues for some other reason, Rockstar suggests starting support tickets on its website so it can try to help out on a one-on-one basis. In the meantime, the studio told IGN that it’s “actively looking into any other issues as they arise” and will “continue to update the Rockstar Support pages with more information as it becomes available.”
Red Dead Redemption 2 is now available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. A Google Stadia version is also in the works.
Source: Rockstar Games (Via: IGN)