Rockstar Games recently launched the Enhanced Edition of Grand Theft Auto V on PC, boasting enhanced graphics including ray tracing. However, the launch has been far from smooth for some players, encountering significant issues with the Rockstar Games Launcher.

One gaming journalist at DSOGaming documented their struggles to even start the game.  After spending two hours wrestling with the launcher, they ultimately abandoned their attempts. The following image shows the persistent error encountered while trying to access Social Club:

Determined to resolve the issue, the journalist explored numerous online solutions. They uninstalled and reinstalled the launcher, cleared registry entries, ran the executable as administrator, changed the installation directory, and even adjusted audio settings to 16bit/44100Hz. Despite these efforts, the Rockstar Launcher continued to crash.

“After two hours of trying to fix this broken piece of software, I gave up,” the journalist stated.  “I am not going to reinstall Windows 10 just because Rockstar messed up.  You know what? This is precisely why everyone should pirate games with their own launchers.”

The journalist expressed their frustration as a paying customer, unable to play a purchased game due to a malfunctioning launcher.  “Whether specific settings cause this issue is irrelevant. If you choose to use a launcher for your game, it’s your responsibility to ensure it functions on every PC. Simple as that. No excuses. You have a responsibility to your customers; you can’t just demand their money.”

The issues extended beyond just GTA V.  “Because the Rockstar Games Launcher isn’t working, I can’t run any other games that require it. This is how messed up this whole situation is. Now I'm locked out of Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption.  My only recourse? Downloading cracked versions of these games. Thanks, Rockstar!”

While intending to share screenshots of the Enhanced Edition, the journalist was unable to due to these technical difficulties. They expressed having more important things to do than spend an entire day troubleshooting. “This whole ordeal reminds me why most of us strongly oppose these ridiculous game launchers. If customers have to resort to piracy to play the games they’ve purchased, you’ve failed as a company. But who cares? Take-Two and Rockstar are too busy suing modders instead of fixing their broken software!”