If you were trying to play Red Dead Redemption 2 on launch day only to find the Rockstar Game Launcher exited unexpectedly, you’re not alone. There are many players eagerly waiting to play Rockstar’s latest game on PC, but this Red Dead Redemption 2 error is just one of many that the community is reporting on. An official patch is hopefully coming, but until that happens, there are a few fixes that you can try.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Error | Rockstar Game Launcher exited unexpectedly
Considering the vast scope of Red Dead Redemption 2 and the myriad of enhancements and technical improvements coming with the PC port, it’s not entirely surprising that the game has launched with some glaring issues. If we add into that the countless number of different PC configurations that the Rockstar team and other studios must take into consideration, crashes and bugs are bound to happen.
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But it’s the game-breaking issues that are concerning players who have counted the days up to the release, and are now involuntarily locked out of the game, waiting for an official fix. As always, the community is experimenting and trying to fix this Red Dead Redemption 2 error where the Rockstar Game Launcher exited unexpectedly, some of them with success.
A post on the Rockstar support website says that the most common cause for this error is having out-of-date graphics drivers, and is urging everyone affected by it to update their graphics drivers. Nvidia users should update to 441.12 or above, while AMD users should aim for 19.11.1 or above.
If that doesn’t work, one of the unofficial solutions that is working for some players involves updating the BIOS. Obviously, this isn’t a straightforward solution and requires some caution from those willing to try it, but if you want to give it a shot, here are the instructions from Reddit user herblizer:
- Go to your motherboard website and look for support/drivers.
- Find the latest BIOS update and download the file.
- Unzip it and put it on a USB flash drive.
- Reboot your PC and get into BIOS settings by taping Del or F2.
- Update your BIOS.
It’s possible that updating your BIOS isn’t enough to solve the launcher crash issue. Another Reddit user called Jiipex is saying that he managed to fix the “Rockstar game launcher exited unexpectedly” error by updating his Windows version. He specifically mentions version 1903, and that he subsequently disabled his antivirus (Malwarebytes and Windows Defender) and firewall, and the game launched. Obviously, don’t forget to turn those back on as soon as Red Dead Redemption 2 is up and running.
