November 2018
i own the the saboteur on origin pc. everytime i click play on the launcher nothing happens after. what can i do in order to get the game started so i can play the game?
November 2018
Hey @ragingpooper15 sorry for not getting to this sooner.
Do you see an error message of any kind when the issue occurs?
First thing to try would be to repair the game, open your Game Library in Origin and then right click on the game tile and select Repair. This will run for a couple minutes and look for any issues with your game files.
If it works, great. If not get back to me with a DxDiag and we will go from there: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
Darko
January 2019 - last edited January 2019
I also have this problem. I just re-downloaded all my origin games after rebuilding my PC.
Saboteur is one of my all time favourite games, and I'm extremely disappointed I cant play it.
My PC build (abbreviated, but major components shown to find out if there are any incompatibilities):
CPU: Ryzen 5 2600 CPU
GPU: Radeon RX580
RAM: 16GB Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4-2400
HDD: 1TB SSD
OS: Windows 10 Pro, version 1809
I have tried clicking "repair" on the game to see if that would make any difference. Origin repaired the game and said it was ready to play. I click on it, and same problem, the origin status changes to say I'm in game, but it just dumps me to my desktop and nothing loads, and then my status reverts to "available."
I went in and tried both the Saboteur.exe and Saboteur launcher programs directly, but that didn't work. So I tried launching from those files and playing around with the compatibility settings. I changed the compatibility settings on both .exe files to try Windows XP Service pack 2, 3, Vista, and Windows 7. None of those options allowed the game to run. The closest I can get is the launcher program brings me to an initial window where I can set video options, etc. but as soon as I click "play" on that window, it kills the program and dumps me to my desktop again.
I'm super disappointed that I can no longer play this. Is there any resolution to be had?
January 2019
January 2019
Hi, @Canadacorps
I recently spoke to another customer and they mentioned it was due to being installed on a different drive. Have you tried installing it on a different one?
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Other-EA-Games/The-Saboteur/m-p/7313951/highlight/true#M45357
January 2019 - last edited January 2019
I'm sorry but the guy in the other thread is entirely unintelligible. It sounds as though he had the game installed on an external HDD and solved his problem by installing it on his Primary drive (C: ).
This is not the problem in my case. I already have installed the game on my primary drive, not an external drive. The game, as I mentioned, does not load but merely dumps me from the origin window to the desktop without doing anything at all.
Any suggestions?
January 2019 - last edited July 2020 by EA_Lanna
I found the issue and the resolution.
Apparently, the Saboteur will not run on PC's which have more than 4 cores in their CPU.
There is a gamer on GOG who built his own custom solution. I tried the .7z file that he uploaded after modifying it to make it work, and I am now happily playing the game.
Please find the solution here:
<link removed>
Hope this helps someone in the future.
(CM: edited to remove link to 3rd party download.)
January 2019
Thanks for providing the tip and glad to hear it's working for you now, @Canadacorps
August 2019
The 4 core limit issue seems to be correct as others mentioned. I thought I would share the workaround I found. I have an Asus Maxmimus X Hero motherboard and in the Advanced section of the Bios there is a CPU setting to limit the number of cores that are used. Set the limit to 4 and Save. Sure enough Saboteur can run now. Other motherboard brands may have a similar setting.
November 2019