Same here, startup splash screen (windowed) and game never starts, even uninstalled and downloaded it again...

@normbags Yeah I'm getting the feeling it doesn't like the game being installed on a different drive from the Ubisoft Launcher, that's a pretty big miss by the game testers if it is the problem.

@accelstardust Damn, sorry to hear it didn't work, I also tried the symlinking option, that worked too, so for me it hates the D drive, the graphical performance I saw was also a worry, never had a Creed game play that poorly before, maybe the issue is deeper thank just where the game is...

ISSUE WORKAROUND CONFIRMED: So if you have room on your C drive (needs around 47GB) free, copy the whole game folder to a folder there, shut down Ubisoft Connect, change one character in the name of the original game directory, restart Ubisoft Connect, go to Valhalla game properties, it will have an option below download for you to look for game files, click this, select the game directory name on the C drive (I made Ubisoft\Assasin's Creed Valhalla), it will scan the files and then play.

Absolutely ridiculous that the game cannot handle being on a separate drive (I think its more to do with Microsoft Storage Devices), also its performance for me is terrible, so I can barely play anyway, I got an average of 5 fps in the benchmark, my system is an i7 and I have two GTX 970's in SLI, not that recent but it chews up and spits out all the previous Assasin's Creed games...

@flixn0x I have run Odyssey and Origins on a second drive fine, can't with Valhalla, it appears to be because the game doesn't like Windows Storage Spaces being used for the game files. Which is a feature that has been in Windows since version 8, yet this game cannot handle, poor coding methinks...

@Kushkills2469 Sorry that was meant to be a reply to @beez_trees

@kushkills2469 Wow, you don't support Storage spaces???? Its been in Windows since 8, I run all my games from a Storage space drive, even Division Two, that is such a mind blowing oversight that your company cannot code a game to work with Storage spaces.

FYI there is a workaround people are doing where they move some sound files in the game directory and create symlinks on their (C:) drive to resolve the problem, maybe get your tech people to have a look.

Many people use small fast ssd's for the OS and larger slower storage for files and games, and you recommend installing games on the same drive as the game launcher, so what if we install the launcher on the Storage space?

@w_weasle wow really? They told you that! so I have played Odyssey, Origins, Division two all on my storage space device, that is amazing, why should the game care about that I wonder...

@normbags Yeah I'm getting the feeling it doesn't like the game being installed on a different drive from the Ubisoft Launcher, that's a pretty big miss by the game testers if it is the problem.

Same here, startup splash screen (windowed) and game never starts, even uninstalled and downloaded it again...