Same here. Installed it today and it won't start.
Windows 10.
Bought this as a replacement for another game from GOG that wouldn't run.
Not having a good week with GOG tbh!

Edit: I do not have the Steam version.

Same issue, no steam version of the game btw and allso running win 10.

I suspect that the fixes mentioned on the Steam forums won't help me - the Steam version works fine for me! But, who knows.

I took a look at what the differences are between the Steam and GoG versions. I didn't find any answer, but maybe these details will give someone else a clue. See below:

As expected, both the Steam and GoG versions of the game include files that are not included in the other version.

Both versions include a lot of the same files, of course. For most of these files, there is no difference between the two versions.

There are only a few files common to both versions that are actually different between the two versions. One file is the main Binaries/Win32/LifeIsStrange.exe executable. The only other differing files are some of the localization files.

Steam only includes one file not found in the GoG version, Binaries/Win32/steam_api.dll. Copying that file over won't help.

The GoG version includes 1,695 files not seen in the Steam version. Nothing exciting though: Two dlls for the galaxy client are in the Binaries/Win32 folder: common.dll and galaxy.dll. A bunch of other client related files in the top level dir, all of whose names start with "gog". The rest are all the DLC files for the chapters not included in the free Steam version.

I can only conclude that when the game was ported for GoG that the porters added or changed something in the executable that wasn't done quite right.

Since deleting the Steam version does not help, I have to wonder whether or not all the folks having problems also had the Steam version or not?

I submitted a support ticket and got the automated response that they probably wouldn't respond for a couple of weeks.

Probably better from a PR point of view not to release games with little support in place, but there you go.

I'll ask for a refund if it's not fixed in a couple of weeks.

Same issue here. Looks like GOG will need to create a hot fix. Already submitted a report to support.

Same here...
Not starting and just showing this all the time.

I pulled up a dump file in the Windows debugger. It's claiming an illegal instruction is being executed from common.dll in a routine named SteamAPI_Init,

Maybe the issue is related to Steam integration and has nothing to do with whether or not you have/had the steam version of the game. No real idea though.

So they are basically selling a pirated steam version of the game but not cracked it?

Same Here! Wont start on my offline Windows 7 Gaming PC. Shows nothing.

Thanks for hunting these out, went through the list but nothing worked :(

No, of course not. It's likely the steam stuff is related to the fact that the GOG Galaxy 2.0 client has an ability to import games from other sales platforms. They want you to have an option to be able to launch any game you own from within GoG Galaxy.

Frankly, I have no good guess at this point. Issues with audio or graphics have been seen in the past, but the closer I look, the harder it is to imagine why the Steam version works on the same machine that the GoG version won't. Both versions seem to include the exact same support files for things like audio, graphics, etc. It looks like an interaction with Steam, but I would have imagined that this would be something that was well nailed down by now and wouldn't vary much from game to game.

Either way massive loss of respect for this platform right now. ill can some of my frustration but something is fishy here they are slacking.

Did more searching and found a few more things to try:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/1/611696927916282368/

In the thread people have had success by disabling there video or audio devices, starting the game, then enabling the device afterward. Also in the thread by the sounds of it the game wasn't properly optimized for PC.

The Dontnod team do seem very active with support so it may be helpful to contact dontnod directly.


One more thing to try is this:

Open "LifeIsStrangeEngine.ini" in notepad or another text editor
(File is located in \users\Owner\Documents\My Games\Life is strange\LifeIsStrangegame\config\)

Find "Fullscreen=True" <Line 992> and change it to "Fullscreen=False" Then run the game.

Game may have some issues when running in fullscreen as that is were my problems were.

Nope doesn't do anyhing.

Nothing to add, except that I'm experiencing the same thing on my Windows 10 machine. Frustrating. I've never installed the game through Steam.

My wife hasn't had any problems on her Windows 10 machine with it and she has previously installed Episode 1 from Steam.