After the disaster of Avengers, we finally have Marvel’s game from Square Enix that looks promising. A lot of players wanted the game to be co-op as they cannot control the other 3 characters directly. But, a single-player title is for the best, it eliminates a lot of complications. We don’t have to deal with matchmaking in this game, but some players are reporting Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy crashing at startup and won’t launch issues. Some issues are bound to happen with games such as these that have a high system requirement, but not every issue you encounter with the game is a fault of the developers.
If your game is crashing either at the title screen, while accessing the menu, at specific points in the game, at the startup, or have the infinite loading screen, the first place to look is your system. At the time of writing there aren’t any game-breaking bugs that crash Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy on PC, so it’s likely a local problem. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. We identify the most likely causes of the crash and attempt to fix them.
Note: This guide is a work-in-progress and will keep evolving or updating in the days that follow after release, so if none of the fixes worked at the time you are reading, check back later as we just got the game ourselves.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Crashing at Startup and Won’t Launch Fix
Crashing problems with games are predominantly caused by an outdated graphics card driver, conflicting software, antivirus software blocking the game folder, and high game settings. Hence, before you proceed with the guide, ensure that you have gone through the below checklist.
- Update the GPU driver software
- For Nvidia users, you have the Version 496.13 of Game Ready Driver released on 12 Oct. AMD users can look for an update as well.
- Ensure that you are running the game on minimum settings.
- Whitelist the game folder on your respective antivirus.
- Install the game in the same folder as your OS.
- Do not overclock and ensure that the PC is not overheating.
If Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is unable to launch after exhausting the above solutions, here are some others you can try.
Run the game in a clean boot environment
A clean boot environment ensures that your PC boots with only the essential software required to run the OS. It eliminates the possibility of third-party software interfering with the game process as well as freeing resources for the game to run optimally. Here are the steps you can follow.
- Press Windows Key + R and type msconfig, hit Enter
- Go to the Services tab
- Check Hide all Microsoft services
- Now, click Disable all
- Go to the Startup tab and click on Open Task Manager
- Disable one task at a time and restart the system.
Verify the game files for corruption or missing files
If a portion of the game files are missing or corrupt, which can happen during the download and install process, the game will fail to launch. Steam has a simple feature to help with that – Verify the Integrity of game files.
Launch the Steam Client > go to Library > right-click Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy > Properties > Go to Local Files > click on Verify Integrity of Game Files
Reinstall or Update DirectX Files and Visual C++ Redistributable
An issue with the DirectX will most likely result in the game crashing with or without an error. The usual error you would see is a missing DLL. Updating or reinstalling DirectX can fix the issue. Here is a link to the official Microsoft website.
Also, reinstall the Visual C++ Redistributable starting from 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022. Uninstall these versions and download the fresh copy from the official website of Microsoft. While installing, install both the x86 and x64 versions.
That’s all we have in this guide, but we will update the post tomorrow within 12 hours from the launch of the game, so bookmark the page if your problem is not solved.