# God of War Ragnarök Black Screen Launch Issue Hotfix

- Product: God of War Ragnarök (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/god-of-war-ragnar-k)
- Vendor: Santa Monica Studio
- Date: 2025-03-28
- Original notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2322010/view/505072542004806970
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/god-of-war-ragnar-k/releases/2025-03-28-black-screen-launch-issue-hotfix

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- **fixed** — Fixed NVIDIA driver crash or soft lock that prevented the game from loading by changing how shader compilation works
- **changed** — Shader compilation process may now cause micro-stuttering during initial load as a trade-off to avoid driver crashes

An NVIDIA Driver Crash/Soft Lock that prevents the game from loading is under investigation. In the meantime, we've implemented a work around for the cause of the crash to change how shader compilation works. This change may cause some micro-stuttering during initial load, but will hopefully avoid the driver crash that prevents game from starting.

Please verify files after patching.