Hitman 3 (otherwise World of Assassination) is an enthralling stealth game. Yet, some players can’t play Hitman 3 because of technical startup crash issues. For example, a player reported this in a Reddit post: “Hitman 3 won’t launch. Hitman was running fine yesterday, but after I updated it on Steam, it’s now been refusing to launch.” It can fail to launch with or without showing any error message that indicates a possible cause. This is how players can fix Hitman 3 not launching on Windows 11/10 PCs.
Verify the Integrity of Hitman 3’s Files
Selecting to verify Hitman 3’s game files may or may not fix that game not starting on your PC. However, you must try this possible fix because corrupted game files can often cause technical issues. To verify Hitman 3, check out these Steam help or Epic games support pages that provide instructions for repairing missing or corrupted game files.
The Verify integrity option
Add a -Skip -Launcher Command to Hitman 3
Many players confirm adding a new launch command for skipping the launcher can fix Hitman 3 not launching. This potential resolution is confirmed to work for the Steam and Epic Games. You can add a new command for launching that game with those gaming clients as follows.
Steam
- Start Steam and select Library.
- Right-click Hitman 3 (or World of Assassination) and select Properties.
- Input -skip_launcher into the Launch Options box.
The Launch options in Steam
Epic Games
- Bring up the Epic gaming client software.
- Click the user account button in Epic to select Settings.
- Double-click Hitman 3 (World of Assassination) to expand it.
- Next, select Additional Command Line arguments.
- Input the -skip_launcher command.
The Additional Command Line Arguments checkbox
Delete the Hitman 3 Data Folder
Players also confirm deleting a data folder for the game can fix Hitman 3 not launching. This is how you can delete that folder.
- Click the File Explorer shortcut within the Windows taskbar and go to this folder location: C:Users%username%AppDataLocalIO Interactive.
- Next, click on the Hitman 3 folder once to select it.
- Select Delete to erase the selected folder.
Update Your PC’s Graphical Driver
An old or faulty graphics driver on your PC could be crashing Hitman 3 when you try starting that game. You can address this potential cause for Hitman 3 not launching by installing a new graphics driver. These are the steps for manually updating an NVIDIA or AMD graphical driver.
- Right-click on Start to select Run, input dxdiag, and press OK. Click Display within the Direct X Diagnostic Tool to view info for your PC’s graphics card.
- Next, bring up your browser software to open either the NVIDIA or AMD driver download page.
- Select the graphics card model shown in the Direct X Diagnostic Tool and click Search or Submit.
The Search option on the NVIDIA downloads page
- Next, select Download for the required graphics card package.
The Download option for NVIDIA drivers
- Open the File Explorer folder navigation tool to bring up the directory containing the downloaded AMD/NVIDIA graphics driver.
- Double-click the AMD/NVIDIA driver package to access it installer window.
- Go through the steps in the setup window to install the driver.
- Restart your PC to complete the driver update.
Select Windowed Mode for Hitman
Some players have needed to change the display mode to windowed to fix Hitman 3 not launching. Thus, the Exclusive Fullscreen mode option can seemingly cause Hitman startup issues to occur. This is how you can select the Windowed setting for Hitman 3.
- Select to start Hitman 3 within your gaming client software.
- Click Options under the Play button for the game.
- Select Windowed for the Display mode setting. You can also try selecting Fullscreen if Exclusive Fullscreen is selected.
The Display mode drop-down menu
- Click Save to confirm and try playing the game.
In addition, consider changing some of the other graphical settings for Hitman 3. If your PC has dual GPUs, select the dedicated NVIDIA or AMD graphics card on the Graphics Processing Unit drop-down menu. Also, set HDR to off if your PC doesn’t have an HDR display.
Disable Overlays
Disabling overlays is another player-confirmed way to fix Hitman 3 not launching on Windows PCs. Discord, NVIDIA GeForce Experience, and Steam are three software packages that incorporate in-game overlay features. So, disable the overlay features in any of those software packages installed on your PC.
The Enable the Steam Overlay option
Set Up a New User Account
Some H3 players say they could fix Hitman 3 not launching by creating new Windows user accounts (or profiles). Those players then switched to their new profiles to play the game. So, that could be worth a try if nothing else works because an issue with your user account could be causing the game to fail to launch. You can set up a new Windows user profile by following the steps on this Microsoft help webpage.
The Windows 10 account settings
Other Possible Ways to Fix Hitman 3 Not Launching on a Windows PC
The potential resolutions above are more widely confirmed ways to fix Hitman 3 not launching, but they might not work for everybody. These potential resolutions for Hitman 3 not starting are also worth a try:
- Reinstall the Hitman 3 World of Assassination game.
- Add the installation directory (folder) for Hitman 3 to your antivirus tool’s exclusion list.
- Try starting the Hitman 3 game directly from its installation folder by double-clicking its EXE file.
- Update Windows 11/10 by following the guidelines on this Microsoft support page.
There’s a good chance one of the possible solutions in this guide will fix Hitman 3 not launching on your PC since they’ve worked for other players. The second, third, and fourth potential fixes are especially widely confirmed ways to kick-start Hitman 3 World of Assassination not starting. If they’re not enough, submit a support ticket to Hitman 3’s help service from this IO Interactive page.
