Fix: Assassins Creed Odyssey Crashing at Startup and Won’t Launch

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an action role-playing adventure-based open-world video game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft in 2018. It’s available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox and Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch platforms. The game has been rated very good on Steam for the PC version, but some unlucky PC players are experiencing issues or errors, like the Assassins Creed Odyssey crashing at startup or not launching. So, if you’re also one of them, try following the troubleshooting guide below.

The Assassin’s Creed Odyssey game is the 11th major instalment of the Assassin’s Creed franchise and the successor version of the 2017’s Assassin’s Creed Origins game. Although it has a wide range of user bases with pretty good graphics or gameplay, there are a couple of bugs or errors available in the game that can easily ruin the gameplay experience. So, if you also feel the same and experiencing any bugs, including graphical glitches or black screen, etc, then check this article.

Before jumping into the steps, ensure that the game’s system requirements are compatible with your PC configuration. You can also check whether the Windows OS and GPU driver is updated to their latest version or not. Meanwhile, you should also check whether your game and client versions are updated to their latest patch. Now, without further ado, let’s get into it.

Why Does Assassins Creed Odyssey Keep Crashing?

It seems that your PC has a couple of issues that can literally cause crashing the game while launching. Let’s take a look.

1. PC configuration doesn’t meet minimum requirements to play the game.
2. Windows OS update is pending.
3. Graphics Driver may be outdated.
4. Corrupted or missing game files.
5. Overlay apps are running in the background.
6. Windows Firewall or any Antivirus program is blocking the game.

Minimum System Requirements:

• OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64bit versions only)
• Processor: AMD FX 6300 @ 3.8 GHz, Ryzen 3 – 1200, Intel Core i5 2400 @ 3.1 GHz
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 285, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 (2GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0)
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 46+ GB available space
• Additional Notes: Video Preset: Lowest (720p)

Recommended System Requirements:

• OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64bit versions only)
• Processor: AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz, Ryzen 5 – 1400, Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.5 GHz or better
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 290, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0) or better
• Storage: 46+ GB available space
• Additional Notes: Video Preset: High (1080p)

Assassins Creed Odyssey Crashing at Startup or Not Loading: How to Fix

Now, without wasting any more time, let’s jump into the steps below. Keep in mind that both the Nvidia and AMD graphics drivers are well optimized for the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey game. So, if in case, you haven’t updated your graphics driver yet, do this first.

1. Update Graphics Drivers

If you’re using the Nvidia graphics card then update the GeForce Experience app on your PC from the Nvidia official site here. But if you’re using the AMD graphics card on your system, then update the latest AMD Drivers from here.

2. Disable Steam Overlay

• Open Steam on your Windows.
• Head over to the Settings > Click on the In-Game option.
• Click on the checkbox to disable “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game“.
• Once the checkbox mark is removed, click on OK.

3. Adjust Discord Settings

• Launch Discord > Click on User Settings.
• Select Voice & Video from the left sidebar.
• Scroll down a bit and click on the Advanced.
• Next, disable OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco System, Inc.
• Then disable Enable Quality of Service High Packet Priority.
• Now, go to Overlay.
• You can also turn off the in-game overlay.
• Next, head over to Appearance.
• Go to Advanced.
• Disable Hardware Acceleration.
• Once done, restart the system.

4. Adjust Nvidia Control Panel Settings

• Click on Adjust image settings with preview under 3D settings.
• Select Use the advanced 3D image settings.
• Next, launch the Nvidia Control Panel.
• Click on Manage 3D settings > Go to Global Settings.
• Additionally, you can also adjust some of the other options:
  • Disable Image Sharpening
  • Enable Threaded Optimization
  • Use Maximum Performance for Power Management
  • Turn off Low Latency Mode
  • Set Texture Filtering Quality to Performance mode

5. Change AMD Control Panel Settings

• Go to Global Graphics.
  • Turn off Radeon Anti-Lag
  • Turn off Radeon Boost
  • Use Application settings for Anti-Aliasing Mode
  • Set Anti-aliasing Method to Multi-sampling
  • Turn off Morphological Filtering
  • Disable Image Sharpening
  • Turn off Anisotropic Filtering
  • Use Performance mode for Texture Filtering Quality
  • You can also enable Surface Format Optimization
  • AMD Optimization for the Tesselation Mode
  • Wait for V-sync – Turn it off
  • Use AMD optimization for the Shader Cache
  • Disable OpenGL Triple Buffering
  • Turn off Maximum Tesselation Level
  • Set Graphics for the GPU Workload
  • Turn off the Radeon Chill
  • Disable Frame Rate Target Control

6. Verify Game Files via Steam Client

The Assassin’s Creed Odyssey gamers on Steam can follow the below steps:

• Open the Steam Library by logging into the account
• You can find the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey game here
• Right-click on the game and click on Properties
• Select the Local Files tab
• Then click on Verify Integrity of Game Files
• Wait for the process and then restart the game to check whether the issue has been fixed or not

7. Uninstall Recent Windows 10 Update

A couple of days ago, Microsoft has released a new update for Windows 10 with KB4535996. So, this particular cumulative update for Windows 10 is quite buggy and causing so many errors or problems.

• Go to Start menu > Click on Settings
• Next, go to Update and Security
• Click on View update history
• Now, if you can see that there is an update having KB4535996 has been already installed. Make sure to uninstall it.
• Here you will see Uninstall updates option on the top of the page.
• Click on it and select the mentioned cumulative update version.
• Right-click on it > Select Uninstall.
• It may take some time to delete that update and your system may restart automatically.
• Have some patience and you can also manually reboot your Windows PC (if required).

8. Remove Temporary Files

• Press Windows key + R on your keyboard to open the RUN program.
• Now, type %temp% and press enter
• You will get a bunch of temporary files on a page.
• Select all files by pressing Ctrl + A on the keyboard.
  Next, press Shift + Delete on the keyboard to remove all the files.
• Some times some of the temporary files can’t be deleted. So, leave them as it is and close it.

9. Set Default CPU and Graphics Speed

As most of the users always want to use ultra-high performance from the CPU and GPU from the very first day. So, most of the users either buy an overclocked version or manually increased the overclocking speed. So, if you’ve also overclocked your GPU speed and after doing that you’re experiencing bottleneck or lagging or crashing related issues, just set it to default mode.

You can also use the MSI Afterburner tool or Zotac firestorm application in order to lower the clocking speed. Once done, you can run Assassin’s Creed Odyssey game and check if the problem is fixed or not.

That’s it. We hope this guide was useful to you. You can comment below for any queries.