Modern Warfare 2 "Not Launching" error: How to fix, possible reasons, and more

All players who pre-ordered Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 now have access to the campaign on various platforms as an early access reward. As with every major launch, there are various issues surrounding the title in its present state, disrupting the gameplay experience.

That said, there is a prevalent problem on Xbox consoles that does not let users launch the game. There is no official fix for it yet, nor has a hotfix been released for the platform to resolve it; however, there are some workarounds and ways to circumvent the error so that users to start the campaign.

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Fixing Modern Warfare 2 early access campaign "not launching" issue on Xbox

The problem Xbox users are facing where the game won't launch is associated with connectivity errors, the right packs not having been downloaded, and corrupted files. Here are some potential fixes.

Check for connectivity errors

The network settings option under general settings (Image via Microsoft)

To play Modern Warfare 2's campaign, players need to be online and connected to the internet. If this was done wirelessly, check if the connection is stable. Go to Xbox settings, select 'General' on the left panel, select 'Network settings', and select 'Test network connection'.

This test will give you all the necessary information about your internet connection, including ping, speed, and NAT type. If something is too slow or unstable, terminate the connection and re-establish it. Doing so via LAN offers the most stable and fastest link.

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Download packs

Modern Warfare 2 packs on Xbox (Image via Microsoft)

To play Modern Warfare 2's campaign, you need to have several game packs downloaded. If you have pre-ordered the title, you can currently download the full game and access the single-player mode.

To do so:

• Go to the Xbox store.
• Search for Modern Warfare 2 and click on the 'owned' version of the game.
• Select 'Manage', and you will see multiple packs that you can download.
• You need to select the base game pack that is at the top of the list with a total size of 37.4GB.
• Choose the "Campaign" pack next, which will add 17GB to your download.
• Lastly, select all the 'Add-on' content packs at the bottom of the list, which have a size of around 10MB each.

You do not need to select the Co-op, Multiplayer, and Warzone 2 packs to access the campaign, but you can pre-load it before the full launch of the game on October 2.

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Restart console

Some issues can be fixed by simply restarting the console. Users will have to keep restarting the Xbox device until the game fully launches.

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Re-install game

If none of the aforementioned fixes work for you, there's a possibility that your game files might be corrupted. Unfortunately, the only fix for that is to re-install the title.

To do so, uninstall the game first by doing this:

• Go to the Modern Warfare 2 icon under 'My games & apps'.
• Press the 'Menu' button on your Xbox controller, and select 'Uninstall'.
• This will uninstall all the downloaded packs of the game.

Users can also uninstall specific packs and re-download them. To do so, repeat the previous steps and select 'Manage game and add-ons' instead of 'Uninstall'. Choose the main game by pressing 'A' and click on 'Manage installation on internal' to access all the packs. You can uncheck whichever pack you want to re-install and select 'Save changes' on the right to confirm your choice.

To re-install the packs, go back to the screen where you unchecked the pack (one or more) and select it again. To start the download, hit 'Save changes' on the right. Once the download and installation is complete, run the game and access the campaign.