Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 · PC · version Launch (Oct 2026)Game does not start from Steam
UnconfirmedUnpatchedUpdated
Steam players say pressing Play does nothing or the game closes before the first screen, with no error shown, even after verifying files and running as administrator. No acknowledgement found.
Lifecycle
Reported · stage 1 of 5
12days open
Since first report
- Reported (reached) · now
- Confirmed (not yet)next
- Acknowledged (not yet)—
- Partial (not yet)—
- Patched (not yet)—
- Game
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
- Platform
- PC
- Affected version
- Launch (Oct 2026)
- Kind
- Bug
- Confirmation
- Unconfirmed
- Patch status
- Unpatched
- First reported
- Last updated
- Latest fix or workaround
- None on the record
How we label issues
Kind
- Exploit: Repeatable and clearly advantageous to the player using it; essentially cheating.
- Bug: Everything else: crashes, launch errors, broken features, visual or audio faults.
Confirmation
- Confirmed: A developer or official account acknowledged it, an official known-issues board lists it, it appears in official patch notes, or 100+ corroborating posts on X were actually counted.
- Unconfirmed: None of the above yet. Press articles are reports and never confirm an issue on their own.
Patch status
- Unpatched: Known and open; no fix has been claimed.
- Reported as unpatched: Players credibly report it persisting, including after a fix claim that never appeared in patch notes.
- Partially patched: Official patch notes list a fix, but credible later reports say it still happens, or the notes only cover part of it.
- Reported as patched: A developer, official account or player says it is fixed, but no official patch notes list it.
- Patched: Official patch notes (a Steam news post or the publisher's patch notes page) list the fix, and nothing credible says it still happens.
Active means still affecting players: Unpatched, Reported as unpatched or Partially patched. Patched and Reported as patched issues are closed.
Estimated impact runs from 0.1 to 9.9 with one decimal. xploitr sets it from the rubric below. Factors: advantage to other players, reach, play blocked or progress lost, frequency, and whether a reliable workaround exists. Patched issues keep their historical impact.
Signed-in community members can report new issues and suggest status changes, such as Fixed or Still unpatched, with their platform, version and a source. Every report and suggestion is reviewed by an editor before anything on the record changes. A new issue is published only when the report has at least three independent sources (distinct accounts, or distinct sites for web pages, after blocked sources are removed), unless the owner approved that issue by hand. Approved input appears as a dated Update from the xploitr community source on the issue's timeline, credited to the member's username (reports can opt out and stay anonymous); nothing is counted or published automatically.
Impact bands
- 0.1–2.9 Low: Cosmetic, audio, text and UI glitches with no effect on play.
- 3.0–4.9 Moderate: Narrow gameplay bugs or small exploits, rare or with a workaround.
- 5.0–6.9 Elevated: Bugs most players in a mode notice: hit registration, desync, balance-breaking damage.
- 7.0–8.4 High: Widely abused competitive or economy exploits; crashes many players hit.
- 8.5–9.9 Severe: Launch blockers, widespread progress or item loss, exploits that break the game for everyone.
Each issue has a dated timeline of updates (report, acknowledgement, announcement, fix, workaround). Update summaries are our own words; quotes and excerpts are the source's words, or our English translation when marked.
Updates · 13
- Report
Oct 17: a player enabled Secure Boot and TPM 2.0, but the game still closes every time before starting.
Community report · Steam · Forum thread ·
“Literally spent 3 hours messing around with my computer to update my bios and get secure boot plus TPM 2.0 working for the anti cheat to still close the game every time before it even launches. I…”
Community report · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Report
Oct 24: the splash screen shows, then the game closes; the player found a COM permission error in Windows Event Viewer.
Community report on reddit ·
“i hit start it shows the splash screen then closes and stops running, i found this in event viewer. The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM…”
Community report on reddit · Open source - Report
Oct 24: a player still cannot start the game after validating files, flashing the BIOS and running as administrator.
Community report · Steam · Forum reply ·
“did you fix this? Ive validated files, flashed BIOS, run in admin and nothing”
Community report · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Report
Oct 24: pressing Play on Steam does nothing, and nothing unusual shows in Task Manager.
Community report · Steam · Forum thread ·
“I'm having issues with my game launching when ever i click the green start button on steam it does nothing and turns blue and when i check the task manager i don't see nothing out the ordinary is…”
Community report · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Report
Oct 24: Steam says the game is launching, then switches back to Play.
Community report · Steam · Forum thread ·
“Somebody help, The game won't even let me launch it. Just hitting play and it keeps saying it's launching then switches back to play like i never launched it.”
Community report · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Report
Oct 24: the same player has tried every fix they can find without success.
Community report · Steam · Forum reply ·
“same I've been doing every tech thing possible. hopefully they fix it”
Community report · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Report
Oct 24: a player on a Lenovo laptop says the game no longer loads at all.
Community report · Steam · Forum reply ·
“Now, it won't load up for nothing.”
Community report · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Report
Oct 24: a player describes the game closing at launch from Steam, before the Ricochet loading screen and with no error, and suggests a fix.
Community report on reddit ·
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 [STEAM].. If your game closes—without even displaying the "Ricochet" loading screen or showing an error message—when you try to launch it via Steam, please try the…”
Community report on reddit · Open source
- Report
Oct 25: another player has the same problem.
Community report · Steam · Forum reply ·
“happening to me too. idk how to fix. im about to refund.”
Community report · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Report
Oct 25: a Steam player still can't launch MW4 after verifying and reinstalling and enabling Secure Boot and TPM 2.0.
Community report · Steam · Forum thread ·
“Hey everyone, I'm having issues launching Call of Duty MW4 through Steam, and I've pretty much tried everything I can think of, but nothing seems to work. Here's what I've tried so far: Verified…”
Community report · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Report
Oct 27: new thread: pressing Play on Steam does nothing.
Community report · Steam · Forum thread ·
“I press play and nothing happens.”
Community report · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Report
Oct 27: a PC player whose Secure Attestation Wizard says the system is compliant presses Play, Ricochet starts and the game closes with no window or error.
Community report · Steam · Forum thread ·
“Pressing Play, Steam shows Stop for a few seconds, the Ricochet icon appears in the tray, then it goes back to Play. No window, no error, no crash log.”
Community report · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Report
Oct 28: a player cannot launch the game and gets no error, after verifying files.
Community report on reddit ·
“i cannot launch mw4. it doesnt give me an error and i already verified the integrity of the files.”
Community report on reddit · Open source
Sources · 1313 CommunityCommunity reportSteam · Forum thread+ 12 similar community reportsShow all →
“Literally spent 3 hours messing around with my computer to update my bios and get secure boot plus TPM 2.0 working for the anti cheat to still close the game every time before it even launches. I…”
- Community report · redditOpen
“i hit start it shows the splash screen then closes and stops running, i found this in event viewer. The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM…”
- Community reportSteam · Forum replyOpen
“did you fix this? Ive validated files, flashed BIOS, run in admin and nothing”
- Community reportSteam · Forum threadOpen
“I'm having issues with my game launching when ever i click the green start button on steam it does nothing and turns blue and when i check the task manager i don't see nothing out the ordinary is…”
- Community reportSteam · Forum threadOpen
“Somebody help, The game won't even let me launch it. Just hitting play and it keeps saying it's launching then switches back to play like i never launched it.”
- Community reportSteam · Forum replyOpen
“same I've been doing every tech thing possible. hopefully they fix it”
- Community reportSteam · Forum replyOpen
“Now, it won't load up for nothing.”
- Community report · redditOpen
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 [STEAM].. If your game closes—without even displaying the "Ricochet" loading screen or showing an error message—when you try to launch it via Steam, please try the…”
- Community reportSteam · Forum replyOpen
“happening to me too. idk how to fix. im about to refund.”
- Community reportSteam · Forum threadOpen
“Hey everyone, I'm having issues launching Call of Duty MW4 through Steam, and I've pretty much tried everything I can think of, but nothing seems to work. Here's what I've tried so far: Verified…”
- Community reportSteam · Forum threadOpen
“I press play and nothing happens.”
- Community reportSteam · Forum threadOpen
“Pressing Play, Steam shows Stop for a few seconds, the Ricochet icon appears in the tray, then it goes back to Play. No window, no error, no crash log.”
- Community report · redditOpen
“i cannot launch mw4. it doesnt give me an error and i already verified the integrity of the files.”