Halo: Campaign Evolved opened its art book instead of the game on Steam

Players who paid for early access to Halo: Campaign Evolved on Steam were unable to start the game when the period opened, because launching it repeatedly opened the title’s bundled art book instead. PC Gamer reported the problem on 24 July, a day after early access began.

The fault was short-lived. Roughly 40 minutes after the first reports, a member of the Halo team posted in the game’s Discord to say the issue was already being addressed.

PC Gamer said the fix appeared to go live shortly afterwards and that reports of the problem began to slow once it did. Before it landed, affected players had a workaround: right-clicking the game in Steam, opening its Properties and uninstalling the art book component was enough to get past the problem for the users who tried it.

A several-gigabyte art book

The art book at the centre of the problem is a separate application rather than a document bundled into the game directory, and runs to several gigabytes. It collects concept art alongside a game manual and a short story, and plays music while the reader scrolls.

Account linking added a second hurdle

The art book was not the only thing standing between early adopters and the campaign. Halo: Campaign Evolved requires players to link a Microsoft account before it will start, which means a first launch needs a working connection to Microsoft’s servers — and those servers were also having problems on the same day. Once the account is linked, PC Gamer said, the game can be played offline on PC.

Neither problem affected the game’s content, and the art book fault was resolved within an hour of the first reports. Both occurred during the paid early access period.