Mafia: Definitive Edition - How To Fix Crashing On Start-Up

Mafia: Definitive Edition has a nasty bug for players on the Steam version that causes the game to fail to load. When some players try to launch the game, it just does nothing — the game starts and then crashes instantly. It sucks not being able to play a game you just bought, so here’s a quick and simple fix for the problem until the developers Hangar 13 release a patch.

Mafia: Definitive Edition is a complete and exacting remake of Mafia 1 on a modern engine with lush graphics, re-made cutscenes, and overhauled shooting mechanics. It’s the exact same game with all the bells-and-whistles of a modern epic on current-gen hardware. It’s kind of crazy to look back at the original and try to compare with the new version of Mafia.

More Mafia: Definitive Edition guides:

How To Fix Crash On Start-Up / Game Fails To Launch

If your copy of Mafia: Definitive Edition won’t launch, you can bypass the launcher by accessing the installation folder.

Find your Mafia: Definitive Edition installation folder by right-clicking your game in your Steam Library -> Manage -> Browse Local Files
- Steam\steamapps\common\Mafia Definitive Edition\mafiadefinitiveedition.exe
Find the file mafiadefinitiveedition.exe. Use this to launch the game instead, and it should launch properly.

Once you’re in-game, you can go to the Settings and disable the launcher from there. Now your game should launch without a problem.

Source: [1], [2]