Fix: Payday 2 won’t Launch

Payday 2 is a Co-Operative First Person Shooter that was developed by Overkill Software and published by 505 Games. The game was released in the August of 2013 and became quite popular among the gaming community. However, quite recently a lot of reports have been coming in of the game not launching after executing the game executable. The game does not display any error message and simply fails to launch.

What Prevents Payday 2 From Launching?

We investigated the issue after receiving numerous reports from users and formed a list of solutions that solved the issue for most of the users. Also, we looked into the reasons due to which the error was being triggered and they are listed below.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the nature of the problem we will move on towards the solutions. It is recommended that you try these solutions in the specific order in which they are provided to avoid any conflicts.

Solution 1: Providing Administrative Privileges

The game requires administrative privileges in order for all of its elements to function correctly. Therefore, in this step, we will be providing the game with administrative privileges. For that:

1. Navigate to the game installation folder.
2. Right–click on the “payday2_win32_release.exe” and select “Properties“.
3. Click on the compatibility tab and check the “Run as Administrator” box.
4. Click on “Apply” and then on “OK“.
5. Run the game and check to see if the issue persists.

   

Solution 2: Disabling Fullscreen Optimizations

Sometimes the “Fullscreen Optimization” feature of the Windows 10 can interfere with certain elements of the game and cause problems during the launch process. Therefore, in this step, we are going to be disabling the fullscreen optimization feature.

1. Navigate to the game installation folder.
2. Right-click on the “payday2_win32_release.exe” and select “Properties“.
3. Click on the compatibility tab and check the “Disable Fullscreen Optimizations” box.
4. Click on “Apply” and then on “OK“.
5. Run the game and check to see if the issue persists.

   

Solution 3: Verifying Game Files

The game requires all of its files to be present and intact in order for it to load properly. Sometimes important game files can become corrupted over time and as a result, the game fails to launch. Therefore, in this step, we are going to be verifying the game files through steam client. For that:

1. Open the Steam Client and log in to your account.
2. Click on the “Library” tab and right-click on “PayDay 2“.
3. Select “Properties” and click on the “Local Files” tab.
4. Select the “Verify Integrity of Game Files” option and wait for the client to verify the game files.
5. Run the game and check to see if the issue persists.

   

Solution 4: Reinstalling VC Redist

It is possible that the Visual C++ Redistributable is not installed properly or the installation got corrupted. Therefore, in this step, we will first uninstall the Microsoft VC Redist and then reinstall it after downloading it from the Microsoft website.

1. Click on the start menu and select the settings icon.

   

2. Click on “Apps” and select “Apps & Features” from the left pane.

   

3. Click on the “Microsoft Visual C++…” and select “Uninstall“.

   

   Note: Make sure to uninstall all the applications named “Microsoft Visual C++…” because quite often there are multiple versions of the application installed.

4. Once you uninstall all the versions of the application, download “Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015” from here.

   

5. Install the program when it finishes downloading and then download “Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 3” from here.
6. After finishing the download, install the application and then download “Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013” from here.

   

7. After installing this package as well, run the game and check to see if the issue persists.

Solution 5: Replacing Executables

In some cases, the executables and certain “.dll” files located inside the game directory can get corrupted. Due to being necessary for the launch process, these files need to be replaced. For that

1. Download the new executables from here.
2. Extract the zip file to the folder of your choice and copy them.

   

3. Navigate to the game installation folder, right-click anywhere and select “Paste“.
4. When the message comes up select “Copy and Replace” in order to replace the executables with new ones.

   

5. Right-click on the new “Payday2_win32_release.exe” and select “Run as Administrator“.
6. Check to see if the issue persists.