RED Launcher preventing Steam playtime and achievements

[lostre4lity]

Hello. Since I cannot create new thread I have to report an issue by replying here (logic? nah). Contacting support makes no sense since no one is replying with some relevant answers.

On to the topic.
I play Cyberpunk through Steam and suddenly it stopped counting play time and registering achievements. I'm not using any mods, I launch the game through Steam, then RED Launcher. The moment RED Launcher starts the game, Steam reverts it back to non-active state, as is, "Play" button can be pressed again as if the game wasn't running. I contacted Steam, they pointed me to CDPR. Not willing to go back to Steam support since it's not their issue, Steam starts the game properly, it's RED Launcher messing things up. And before "solutions" appear:
- Cyberpunk and RED Launcher are allowed by my firewall
- starting as an admin did not change a thing
- doesn't matter if Steam overlay is on or off, still no change, hours and achievements not counting
- verifying game files yielded no positive results, as is, all files are ok

Help appreciated and desired.

@SigilFey

 

[SigilFey]

Post moved!

If you go into Steam's launch options for Cyberpunk 2077, you can add the following line:

--launcher-skip

That should allow the game to launch right from Steam, skipping the RED Launcher splash screen. Might fix it.

 

[lostre4lity]

Post moved!

If you go into Steam's launch options for Cyberpunk 2077, you can add the following line:

--launcher-skip

That should allow the game to launch right from Steam, skipping the RED Launcher splash screen. Might fix it.

I did that. Still nothing, no playtime counted, no achievements. How many virgins should I sacrifice to get someone from CDPR help me? This is serious problem and I have no idea why they just keep silence.
EDIT:
The issue persists with Steam keeping the game as non-playing even if the RED Launcher is skipped. As seen on attached screenshot, the game is running while Steam shows I can hit Play button to start it. I'd say "well done" but let's not get too salty... -.-

 

[lostre4lity]

Can I please have some kind of help with this bug?

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Did you event contact the support ?
("contact us" button)

Achievement wasn't completed — Cyberpunk 2077 | Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED

Welcome to CD PROJEKT RED Technical Support! Here you will find help regarding our games and services, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

support.cdprojektred.com

On side note, even if Steam support pointed out the game (something that they tend to do fairly easily), it really seem to me to be an issue related to the Steam launcher.

 

[lostre4lity]

Did you event contact the support ?
("contact us" button)

Achievement wasn't completed — Cyberpunk 2077 | Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED

Welcome to CD PROJEKT RED Technical Support! Here you will find help regarding our games and services, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

support.cdprojektred.com

On side note, even if Steam support pointed out the game (something that they tend to do fairly easily), it really seem to me to be an issue related to the Steam launcher.

Yes I contacted support, why would you assume I did not? No reply for a week now, I'm very disappointed and actually pissed off because that's not how you treat customers.
And contacting Steam again with full explanation, screenshots etc. resulted in them again pointing finger at CDPR because Steam is launching the game properly and no other Steam game is being stopped randomly like that, meaning running but looking like it's not running. Even AC games that require Ubi Connect to be open when playing the game from Steam behave better.
At this point I have no idea how to contact CDPR and make them help.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Yes I contacted support, why would you assume I did not?

Because of what you said in your first post

Contacting support makes no sense since no one is replying with some relevant answers.

And as far as I know, CDPR always answer. Yes, it could take more or less time depending of issues, but they always answer

Then I googled a bit about your issue, and most of times (if not, always), for most of players who encountered this kind of issue (whatever the game) it was due to something else than the game itself.

At this point I have no idea how to contact CDPR and make them help.

If you didn't, you can contact CDPR support using the link in my previous post > "contact us" button

 

[Crimsomrider]

I wouldn't say it's the launcher, since it's not even required to play the game through Steam. Steam sometimes farts on itself and acts weird, especially these last 6 months where it had a plethora of performance issues all across its service.

• First go to Steam > Settings > Downloads > Clear Download Cache.
• Try launching it and seeing if it works.

If it doesn't;

• Quit Steam > go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps or wherever you installed the game > delete the appmanifest_1091500.acf file.
• Then go to ...\steamapps\common\Cyberpunk 2077\bin\x64 and delete the steam_api64.dll file.
• Now launch Steam and you'll notice CP2077 won't show as installed in your library.
• Click on the game to download it where you already have it installed; this will rediscover existing files and re-generate the files we removed.

Hopefully it works.

As for CDPR Support, they are overbooked and very slow to respond because of it, so although it is always a good idea to contact them, be aware that it may take months before you get a reply back.

 

[SigilFey]

Let's try to identify why it might be denying achievements.

@lostre4lity
Question 0.), as always, is mods. Are you using any, or have you ever used any in the past?

@Crimsomrider
Did you make any drastic changes during the present playthrough? Example: bought a new PC, transferred from console to PC, switched saved games between GOG and Steam, etc.

As for CDPR Support, they are overbooked and very slow to respond because of it, so although it is always a good idea to contact them, be aware that it may take months before you get a reply back.

They'll normally respond within a week, but it can get bogged down. If you're experiencing a longer wait, feel free to follow up after a week has passed. They will get to you! The briefer and more accurate the information you can provide, the more quickly the situation is likely to be addressed. Hence, let's see if we can narrow down what may have caused the game to suddenly stop communicating with Steam.

 

[Crimsomrider]

Oh I'm not having any issues myself. Just offering help where I can and possible solutions as they wait for Support, since from personal experience the response times vary a lot so could be days/weeks or sometimes even months.

Doesn't bother me personally though since I only submit fully detailed in-game bug reports which are completely self-explanatory so that I don't waste Support's valuable time, but someone having game issues might not be as patient so thought I'd mention it just in case

 

[lostre4lity]

Oh I'm not having any issues myself. Just offering help where I can and possible solutions as they wait for Support, since from personal experience the response times vary a lot so could be days/weeks or sometimes even months.

Doesn't bother me personally though since I only submit fully detailed in-game bug reports which are completely self-explanatory so that I don't waste Support's valuable time, but someone having game issues might not be as patient so thought I'd mention it just in case

I'm a game tester. I know how to report a bug, with repro steps and all that fluff. And if CDPR is so overworked why they didn't hire me when I applied

Re. your earlier post:
- Steam cache cleared - did not help
- deleting those files and redownloading Cyberpunk did not help
Still the moment game launches, Steam puts it in inactive state as if it was not running. It happens in exactly the same second RED Launcher disappears and it doesn't matter if I tell Steam to skip launcher or not.

Let's try to identify why it might be denying achievements.

@lostre4lity
Question 0.), as always, is mods. Are you using any, or have you ever used any in the past?

@Crimsomrider
Did you make any drastic changes during the present playthrough? Example: bought a new PC, transferred from console to PC, switched saved games between GOG and Steam, etc.

I do not use any mods, never did.

I upgraded my rig, though not all components, so technically it's not a new PC since the drive is the same, but the game was already behaving like that before this upgrade.


Overall I find it sad that it's the players that must look for solutions but I have it all the time at work from devs' side - "not a bug", "WNF", "WAI". This gets old -.-
Now I have 48 hours in, only close to 10 registered, only 2 achievements from the very start.
I recall one thing though - this whole mess started with update that launched on April 20, my last achiev was registered on April 16 and then until the update I didn't play and launched the game after the update. That was the moment this mess started.

 

[SigilFey]

I'm a game tester. I know how to report a bug, with repro steps and all that fluff. And if CDPR is so overworked why they didn't hire me when I applied

Re. your earlier post:
- Steam cache cleared - did not help
- deleting those files and redownloading Cyberpunk did not help
Still the moment game launches, Steam puts it in inactive state as if it was not running. It happens in exactly the same second RED Launcher disappears and it doesn't matter if I tell Steam to skip launcher or not.




I do not use any mods, never did.

I upgraded my rig, though not all components, so technically it's not a new PC since the drive is the same, but the game was already behaving like that before this upgrade.


Overall I find it sad that it's the players that must look for solutions but I have it all the time at work from devs' side - "not a bug", "WNF", "WAI". This gets old -.-
Now I have 48 hours in, only close to 10 registered, only 2 achievements from the very start.
I recall one thing though - this whole mess started with update that launched on April 20, my last achiev was registered on April 16 and then until the update I didn't play and launched the game after the update. That was the moment this mess started.

Send it on in as a ticket, then. If it was working before April 20th, that should be clear enough for Tech Support to work with. If you can, include a saved game right before an achievement is supposed to proc.

 

[lostre4lity]

Is there anyone hired in CDPR in support dept? Looks like they really don't give a *** about customers and just won't even respond, aside from copy-paste "solutions" that I had already tried before sending the ticket. Well, time to stop funding them I guess.

 

[Draconifors]

Absolutely unnecessary and unwelcome hostility, more or less constantly, from the OP.

No more. Locked.