For more detailed walkthroughs, you can refer to the Steam Community Solution Guide or the official Age of Empires Support Forums .

When you launch Age of Empires II: HD Edition , the game isn't just checking to see if you own the base game. It is performing a handshake with the Steam servers to verify every single piece of content associated with your account. This includes:

If you have ever launched the HD Edition on Steam, only to stare at a frozen screen, a looping spinner, or an endless "Validating Subscriptions" message, you know the frustration. You are not alone, and more importantly, there are proven solutions.

: This forces the game to bypass the mod-checking phase and proceed directly to the main menu. Note that you may need to press it a few times. 2. The Permanent Fix: Accept Workshop ToS