Victoria 3 is a strategic society simulator where you need to build the ideal society during the period of the 19th century. As you create the society of your dreams, you will need to balance the demands of various economic groups and lead your nation towards stability. The game gives you complete freedom on how you wish to develop your country and extend your influence either diplomatically or militarily as you try to maintain global peace and avoid conflicts.
While the game has been praised by critics and fans alike, many players are unable to launch the game as they are greeted with a general error in the game’s launcher. Facing such issues can be really disappointing as the game has been released 12 years after its predecessor.
This guide will tell you how to fix the General error in Victoria 3.
How To Fix “General Error” – Victoria 3
The general error is displayed when you try to launch the game on Steam and the following message appears on your screen: “”We were unable to parse the launcher settings file.
Settings.formatVersion should be integer. Settings.formatVersion should be equal to constant. Make sure you have a valid configuration and try again”.
This is an issue that many players are facing when trying to launch the game and it indicates that there is something wrong with the launcher itself.
While the main files of the game are fine, the error is related to the launcher and will be hopefully fixed by Paradox Interactive in a future update.
In the meantime, you can follow these steps to fix the error:
1. Close the game and Restart Steam.
The first thing that you need to do is close the game if it is running and then restart the Steam client.
This will hopefully fix the issue and if it doesn’t work then you can try restarting your computer to check if the issue is resolved.
2. Run “launcher-installer-windows” in launcher folder
The next thing that you need to do is access the launcher folder by navigating to the directory where the game is installed.
In case you are unable to find the folder, open Steam and right-click on Victoria 3 in your library to select the Browse local files option.
This will open the game’s directory where you need to open the launcher folder and select the launcher-installer-windows.msi.Right-click on it and select the repair option.
Once the repair process is complete, close the window and launch the game to check if the issue is fixed.
If you are still facing issues then you can try uninstalling the launcher-installer-windows file by selecting the uninstall option from the menu.
Install the program again by right-clicking on it and selecting the install option. Wait for the installation process to complete and then launch the game.
3. Launch the game using Victoria 3.exe
If you are still facing issues with the launcher then you try launching the game directly using its exe file. First, you need to open the game’s folder by navigating to the location where it is installed.
In case you are unable to find the folder, open Steam and then right-click on Victoria 3 in your library to select the Browse local files option. This will open the game’s directory where you need to open the binaries folder.
Inside this folder, you will find the Victoria3.exe file which you can run by double-clicking on it.
If you are unable to launch the game, then try executing the .exe file by right-clicking on it and choosing the Run as Administrator option.
4. Uninstall Paradox Launcher V2 and then launch the game
The next troubleshooting method that you can try is to uninstall the Paradox Launcher V2 first and then launch the game.
This will automatically install a fresh version of the launcher and fix the error.
In order to do this, open your Windows Settings and go to the Apps section and search for Paradox launcher in the Apps & Features tab. Click on it and then press the uninstall button to delete the launcher from your computer.
Now restart your computer and launch the game to automatically install a fresh copy of Paradox Launcher V2 on your computer. This will hopefully fix the error and allow you to play the game.
5. Install the latest version of Paradox Launcher from the official website
In case none of the methods listed above is working for you then you always try installing the latest version of Paradox Launcher by visiting the official website: https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/our-games/launcher.
Visit the official website by clicking on the link above and then scroll down to download the Windows version of the launcher. Once the download is complete, run the exe file to install the launcher and then launch the game.
That’s it, hopefully, these troubleshooting methods will fix the General error in Victoria 3!
