Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Sid Meier's Civilization VI

548 ratings
How to bypass the 2K launcher
By BezaoBuilder
The new 2K launcher has been known to cause many issues, crashes and lag. The easiest solution to all of this is to just bypass it entirely.
Note this guide is aimed towards Windows, but should be similar for other operating systems.
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Find Civ6's executable
To find Civ6's executable, right click the game in your library, hover over "manage" and click "browse local files".

A window of your operating system's file browser should appear. Now enter the folder "Base"

Now the folder "Binaries".

Now this may depend upon your operating system, since I am running Windows, I enter the folder "Win64Steam", but if you are running other operating system, it should change accordingly. There should be only one folder in there anyways.

Now you should stumble upon a bunch of files. Now you need to find the Civilization VI executable. Note that without the launcher, you will not be able to choose between DX11 and DX12. If you play on DX11, the Civ6 executable is "CivilizationVI.exe" on Windows, and probably called the same on other platforms, but without the extension (or maybe a different extension). For DX12, it is called "CivilizationVI_DX12.exe" on Windows., again, same deal with extensions. Remember those names.

Now you need to assemble the actual path to the executable. You first need to get the folder's location. On Windows, you do this by clicking the path on the top, where you can then copy the text.

Then you need to add the executable name to it. On Windows, you do this by adding a backslash and then the file name. For example, if your folder is in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Binaries\Win64Steam
and your executable is
CivilizationVI.exe
for DX11, the final result is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Binaries\Win64Steam\CivilizationVI.exe

On MacOS and Linux, you add a forward slash instead. For example, if the folder is:
/home/bezaobuilder/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/Base/Binaries/Linuxx64
and your executable is:
CivilizationVI
then the final path is:
/home/bezaobuilder/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/Base/Binaries/Linuxx64/CivilizationVI
Add the launch options
You now have the path to your Civ6 executable. What good does it do? Well, now you need to go to the game's launch options. Right click the game in the library, but this time, click properties.

A window like this should show up:

Now, look at the "launch options" text box, there you want to type
"path_to_civ6_executable" %command%
Replacing path_to_civ6_executable with the path to the civ6 executable we found out on the previous section.

Need an example? Let's say the path to the game's executable is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Binaries\Win64Steam\CivilizationVI.exe
Then what you want to type in the launch options is:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Binaries\Win64Steam\CivilizationVI.exe" %command%

Let's see another example. Say your path to the executable is:
/home/bezaobuilder/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/Base/Binaries/Linuxx64/CivilizationVI
Then what you want to type is:
"/home/bezaobuilder/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/Base/Binaries/Linuxx64/CivilizationVI" %command%
Include the double quotes too. And %command% has to be outside the quotes.

Now, when you launch the game, Steam may be confused, saying the game is not running (but it is running). It may also take a while for the window of the game to start. But when it does start, congratulations! You just started Civilization VI without the 2K launcher.
Linux on Proton
The above methods work for Linux only if you are running it natively without Proton (which is probably what most are running, and thus you shouldn't worry about this), but if you are using Proton, it will not work. whoisfel made a guide on how to bypass the launcher if you are using Proton to run the game:
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2600050365
If you don't know what Proton is, or you haven't applied it to Civ6, just use the method I mentioned.
102 Comments
allinone 26 May @ 7:04am 
Thank you for the helpful explanation to keep playing xcom2 without the unworkable 2K launcher!
_Undefined 25 Feb @ 7:05am 
thanks for the assist, I feel like I owe you my left kidney
AnDiPro 10 Feb @ 1:07pm 
100% working with Steam + Win 10 :steamthumbsup:
womp 10 Feb @ 12:44pm 
great!
-Meloqt 1 Feb @ 11:56am 
Edit: Addition to my last reply. For users who have Alienware FX Lightning (for example you got an alienware monitor)

A few files have to be removed/edited in order to fix the non booting issue.
Further information in this thread.

https://steamproxy.net/app/289070/discussions/3/340412628172233878/
-Meloqt 1 Feb @ 11:47am 
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Binaries\Win64Steam\CivilizationVI.exe" %command%

Is what I added to my launch options and after starting the game nothing happens. the path is 100% correct
BezaoBuilder  [author] 30 Jan @ 6:52pm 
If you are on Windows, then you should add a backslash (\) instead. On an ANSI QWERTY US keyboard, it is located near the Enter key
Aidan [White Horse] 30 Jan @ 3:02pm 
im lost when it asks me to add a / im unsure to where as my computer wont let me add it to any folder or file name pls help
iclone 2 Jan @ 7:47pm 
Still working for me. Fuck those unecessary launchers
fsupple1 26 Dec, 2023 @ 8:08am 
I'm no computer guru but I used these instructions and they fixed my problem. I just printed them out and went step by step. Thanks for providing this information. You are one of the best in my book.