How to Fix “PUBG Failed to Initialize Steam” Error

PUBG ( playerunknown’s  battlegrounds ) is a online FPS shooter game which retails for about 30$ or 1000 INR. Still it has a huge fan base and even massive player base. Sometimes this game refuses to initialize with steam and causes the “pubg failed to initialize steam” error message. If you are seeing this message , well this article is for you then. We will have a look at some methods which you can use to fix this error in steam.

What might be cause “pubg failed to initialize steam” error ?

The game requires to have running a service which is called a steam client. This initialize failed message mostly appears because there are some permission issues with the steam client service. Its basically a matter of turning on or off some privileges. This error is quite easy to resolve and using our guide you will solve it in no time. Lets see what we will need to do.

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Fixes for the initialize failed error :

1. Changing the permissions of the Tslgame.exe

Tslgame.exe is the executable file that we run to get pubg going. All we need to do is browse this file and uncheck “run as administrator”. That’s it. You might think this was simple but this is the most effective hit for the first time. To do it.

  • Open “my computer” or “this PC”
  • Go to this location

This PC > C: > Program files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common > PUBG > Tslgame > Binaries > Win64

  • Your location might vary according to where you chose to install steam. But basic idea is same
  • Once there , you will see files named Tslgame , Tslgame_BE and TslGame_EAC
  • Right click and choose properties for all of them
  • Go to compatibility
  • Uncheck or Untick the option that says “run as administrator”
  • Save and apply your changes

Your final picture should look kind of like this. Once all done and finished, you can refresh your PC a couple of times and try running PUBG again. This time your game should run perfectly without any steam initialization errors.

2. Running steam as administrator

We will go the opposite way this time. In previous method we ran the game files with removed administrator privileges. But we will allow admin rights for steam.exe . To browse your steam.exe , just go to this path in “This PC”

This PC > C > Program files (x86) > Steam > steam.exe

Right click on the steam.exe file and go to compatibility. Tick mark the option that says “run as administrator”. Save and apply your settings.

Simple as that ! Once done, refresh the PC a couple of times using F5 or as you prefer. Try running PUBG again to see if the “pubg failed to initialize steam” error message goes away. Hopefully it does ! If it still doesn’t,  read on.

3, Kill all process related to steam in Task manager

Sometimes a service did not start correctly and still is maintained in memory. Which results in other apps associated with it not working properly. This is precisely what causes pubg to show that initialize failed steam message. To fix the issue, we will simply just kill all steam related processes that are running and re-run everything.

  • Go to Task manager by clicking ctrl + shift + Esc
  • Select the “Processes” tab
  • Scroll downwards to find some processes that start with steam.
  • We are looking for the Bootstrapper process.

  • Right click on all these processes and click End process for each one of them
  • Once done , close the Task manager and refresh your PC

Now after this, re-run pubg. This should fix the “pubg failed to initialize steam” error now and you can now play the game.

4. Reinstall visual c++ redistributable

Visual C++ redistributable is a package that compiles C++ code for the machine. In simple words, most games are coded in C++ , including pubg. The visual c++ helps to convert those c++ files for some computer understandable numbers that your graphics card needs to run. Basics right here. If the c++ redistributable is broken or outdated, the game won’t run. To fix it,

  • Grab the latest version of visual c++ redistributable from microsoft’s website , from here.
  • Now browse to the following location.

C: \ Program Files (x86) \ Steam \ steamapps \ common \ PUBG \ _CommonRedist \ vcredist

  • Run the visual c++ installer and install the files in this location. Install both 2013 and 2015 versions.
  • Once done, restart your computer

So if you installed the files into the right place, the issue is fixed now. You can run pubg now without having to worry for that clumsy message showing up again.

5. Reinstall steam

Yes , re-install steam. There might be some issue in the steam installation itself which doesn’t seem to be fixed by external fixes. Just uninstall steam and install over.

Create a backup of all your games so that you can restore them again after steam has been installed. To learn about how that works , check out this article right here

  • Go to start menu and search for “Add or remove programs”
  • Search for “steam” and click to uninstall it.
  • You can grab new installer for steam from steam’s official website
  • Install it and restore your backups that you previously created.

Try running pubg now. If it was anything with steam’s installation that was causing the failure message to pop up, now it’s fixed now.

6. Other things you can try

Unfortunately you are still here because none of the methods worked out for you 🙁 But that is not the end. try these tips.

  • You can try updating your graphic drivers via device manager under display adapter settings
  • Verify your game integrity ( all files ) by checking steam’s game integrity check. It will fix any missing or broken files.

Final Conclusions:

There we have it. some popular methods that have fixed the “pubg failed to initialize steam” error for a lot of users. Hopefully it did for you as well 🙂 Feel free to comment down below your own ways that worked for you. Cheers and peace.

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