Watch Dogs PC launch did not go smoothly

Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs launched around the globe on 27 May for various platforms, and if the early reports and personal experience is anything to go by, it’s been a bit of a botch job on the PC.

Message boards and Facebook walls are filling up with complaints about Uplay server issues, game launch issues, random crashes, erratic frame rate performance, gameplay glitches, texture clipping – an ever expanding litany.

The extent of the problems are probably yet to emerge as more players pick up the game, but it’s already starting to smack of the Assassin’s Creed 2 PC launch and DRM debacle.

My own problems with the game included Uplay login issues and the show-stopping “disrupt_b64.dll” error which left me unable to play at all.

Various quick fix suggestions are popping up (I’ve tried them to no avail) but there’s nothing definitive and it seems like the game desperately needs patching, optimising, and the latest graphics card drivers as soon as they become available.

Ensuring your Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package, Microsoft NET Framework, and Direct X are up to date is also a good idea.

Ubisoft support staff on their forums are acknowledging the problems and asking users to submit information to help them fix it, so we can probably expect a number of patches to appear in the coming weeks.

The list below illustrates the various problems users are encountering.

Watch Dogs launch issues

Watch Dogs crashes to desktop with error:
- “The application was unable to start correctly (0x000007b)”.
- “Windows Vista SP1 or better required”.
- Error 0xc000007b.
Game won’t launch with disrupt_b64.dll corrupted file error .
Watch Dogs blue screen crash with error 0xa0000001.
Uplay overlay causes game executable to stop working.

Have you experienced any problems with Watch Dogs?

Is it understandable or acceptable for a big-name AAA title to launch with some problems?

Let us know in the comments and the forum.