Having expected Elden Ring to release in January 2022, this was pushed back into late February, in large part to carry out essential QA and debugging work. But some players are still experiencing an issue where Elden Ring won't launch.
For anyone who has eagerly been awaiting the release of a new game from the team behind Dark Souls, a delay was bad enough. But to then be struggling even launch the game, is enough to cause temper tantrums the world over. There are, however, some potential fixes you can try to overcome this.
How To Fix Elden Ring Not Opening On PC
Before you get on with trying any troubleshooting, make sure that your computer is actually capable of running the game. If it doesn't meet the minimum recommended specifications for the game, then no amount of help is going to be enough, and you are always likely to experience major performance issues. Those requirements are as follows:
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: INTEL CORE I5-8400 or AMD RYZEN 3 3300X
- Memory: 12 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 3 GB or AMD RADEON RX 580 4 GB
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 60 GB available space
- Sound Card: Windows Compatible Audio Device
So we'll assume you've already checked this, and confirmed your PC is up to the job. If you find yourself bedevilled by the lack of launching of Elden Ring, here are some top tips to try to get things sorted.
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Steps To Fix The Not Opening Error
- Your first port of call is the official Twitter feed @EldenRing, in case server issues are responsible for the issue. If an issue is ongoing, wait for it to be resolved before trying again.
- Check for any software updates for the game. Very often, a new game will have some major patches delivered on launch day or shortly thereafter. These typically address a wide range of issues, so it's important to download and install them as soon as possible.
- Running the game as an administrator can help. Navigate to the executable file, right-click on it, and click on Run as administrator.
- You can also verify the integrity of the game files, in case something has gone wrong during the installation process. To do this on Steam:
- Restart your computer and launch Steam
- Next, you can either right click the game in your Library, or click the gear icon from the game's Library page on the far right
- From the drop down menu, select Properties...
- Select the Local Files tab and click the Verify integrity of game files... button
- Wait for a few minutes while the process completes
- Don't overclock your GPU. As well as potentially causing problems with the running of your game, it can actually damage your hardware as well.
- The last option, if nothing is working, is to consider uninstalling, then reinstalling the game altogether.
If none of these steps makes a difference, contact the developers for additional support. But what more do we know about this issue?
What Is The Elden Ring Won't Launch Issue?
As you can see from the solutions we've suggested, there is currently no single specific cause that has been identified. And, as the range of possible fixes suggests, there may actually be multiple different reasons that this arises.
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It's almost inevitable that new games will meet with issues as they launch. We can hope that any major issues such as this will be resolved quickly by the developers, most typically via a software patch.