If you’ve just picked up South of Midnight and found yourself stuck staring at a black screen, or worse, the game won’t launch, you’re not alone. While Compulsion’s hauntingly beautiful Southern folktale has captured many hearts, it’s also triggered a few tech headaches. Whether you’re running into startup issues, frozen intros, or complete no-shows after hitting “Play,” this guide dives into what’s going wrong and, more importantly, how to get Hazel’s journey up and running smoothly.
Some players are running into a frustrating problem where South of Midnight refuses to load entirely, either freezing on a black screen or crashing straight back to the desktop right after launch. This issue seems to pop up during the initial boot sequence, with no error messages or clues, leaving players stuck in limbo.
South of Midnight Game Not Launching/Black Screen Issue: Is there any fix yet
Even though South of Midnight is still fresh off the shelves, the devs are already aware of this issue and have even released a patch fix for the same. So, the first thing you need to try is updating the game to its latest version. However, if the issue persists, read this guide as we’ve shared a few steps you can try in the meantime to get you back in the game.
Update Your GPU Drivers
Before diving into any deep fixes, make sure your NVIDIA/AMD GPU drivers are up to date. Outdated or buggy drivers are often the culprit behind black screen or launch problems, especially with new releases like South of Midnight. To update, head over to NVIDIA’s/AMD’s official drivers page and download the latest Game Ready Driver for your GPU model.
Rename a game file
If updating your drivers didn’t do the trick, you’ll want to try this manual workaround next. First, locate the game’s installation folder. This is the default path: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SouthOfMidnight\Engine\Plugins\Runtime\Nvidia\Streamline\Binaries\ThirdParty\Win64”. If you installed the game elsewhere, right-click South of Midnight in your Steam Library. Click Properties > Installed Files > Browse. This will open the exact folder where the game lives on your system. Inside the folder above, look for a file named sl.pcl.dll. Right-click the file and rename it to something like sl.pcl.bad or sl.pcl.old. Once done, launch the game to check whether the issue persists.
Launch from folder
If you’re stuck with South of Midnight refusing to launch through Steam, head over to the game’s installation directory by following this path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SouthOfMidnight\Midnight\Binaries\Win64. In this folder, find the SouthOfMidnight.exe file and double-click on it. Launching the game this way bypasses the Steam client entirely and, for many players, avoids the black screen crash. The trade-off? Steam won’t track your playtime, achievements won’t sync, and Discord won’t show you as “in-game”.
Verify and Update
The next thing you can try is verifying the integrity of the game files through Steam. This will check for any missing or corrupted files and automatically re-download them if needed. Just right-click South of Midnight in your Steam Library, go to Properties > Installed Files, and click Verify integrity of game files. Also, make sure both your system and graphics drivers are fully up to date—sometimes even a small pending update can be the culprit behind launch issues.
Reinstall on SSD
If nothing else works, consider reinstalling South of Midnight on a faster drive, preferably an SSD. An SSD can significantly reduce load times and improve stability, giving the game a smoother environment to boot up in. It’s a bit of a last resort, but for some players, the move to an SSD has made the difference between a black screen and a successful launch.
Hopefully, one of these workarounds helped you fix the not loading/black screen issue in South of Midnight. Now, before you leave, do not forget to bookmark DigiStatement for more awesome gaming articles like this! You can also click here to find out where the saved files for another recently released game, Sultan’s Game, are located on your PC.
