Published on May 29, 20200

Phantasy Star Online 2 Not Launching on PC | How to Fix

Is Phantasy Star Online 2 not launching for you? Well then, you are not alone, my friend. The PC release has been marred with several issues that prevented the game from launching, but many players couldn't even download the launcher from the Microsoft Store. Saying that the Microsoft Store is rough around the edges is being kind, so it comes as no surprise that many players choose to wait for a Steam release of their favorite games, whenever they have the chance. As if being unable to choose an installation folder for the game wasn't enough, you can deem yourself lucky if you downloaded, installed, and played PSO2 on PC without any hiccups. While there isn't a magical fix to download and launch Phantasy Star Online 2, here's how you can try to get the anime MMORPG going.

Phantasy Star Online 2 Not Launching on PC Fix

Since the release is targeting the North American audience, one of the things that you can try is to change your Windows 10 region settings to NA. You can do this by going to Start – Settings – Time and Language – Region. Your computer must be running Windows 10 and that it is up-to-date, or at least just a few months outdated.

When you go to the Phantasy Star Online 2 in the Microsoft Store, make sure that you are logged into your account. If choosing “Get” doesn't work, try adding the game to the cart and finish the purchase as you normally would with other game. Obviously, you won't have to pay because PSO 2 is free-to-play.

After getting the game, go to your Microsoft Store library and install the game. The initial process will require 11 GB, but the full Phantasy Star Online 2 install size is over 68 GB. You can't choose the installation folder, you are only limited to a drive or partition, so save some space for the game.

If you're like me, you'll stumble upon a very annoying and potentially game-breaking issue during the installation. Some antivirus such as Avast are treating a few Phantasy Star Online 2 files as threats, asking you to quarantine them because of an IDP Generic virus or malware. Making an exception for the file didn't work for the first time, and on the second install the same warning came up as I tried to launch the game. It was only after the third installation and selection a disk partition with much more space that the exception finally worked and I've managed to launch the game. I can't really be sure if the partition change had any effect on this, but you can be certain that the PSO 2 install is a bit all over the place.

There you have it. Disabling your antivirus before downloading the game from the Microsoft Store can be the solution to your problems, but make sure that you enable it right after, or try to add the exception. This isn't a miraculous fix, but hopefully it will finally help you solve the Phantasy Star Online 2 not launching issue.