Age of Empires II: DE no longer launches after latest Steam update

Hi everyone,

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition no longer starts for me after the latest Steam update I downloaded yesterday. The game worked without any problems before the update.

I am using the Steam version. When I try to launch the game, it does not open properly / crashes before I can reach the main menu.

Things I have already tried:

  • Restarted the PC
  • Reinstalled the game
  • Started the game directly from the installation folder on my G: drive
  • Renamed the user config folder:
    C:\Users\[username]\Games\Age of Empires 2 DE
  • Renamed the mods folder to disable all mods
  • Reinstalled / repaired my graphics driver
  • Repaired / reinstalled Microsoft Visual C++ 2015–2022 Redistributable x64
  • Restarted the PC again after repairing Visual C++

The issue still persists.

My Steam installation / game files are on the G: drive. I also had another Steam folder on C:, but I have checked that I am launching the game from the G: installation.

Has anyone else experienced this after the latest update? Is this a known issue with the current patch, or is there another workaround I should try?

I can provide Windows Event Viewer crash details if needed.

I have the same problem using Linux, since the new update the game simply doesn not open anymore, the game ran smoothly before