You stare at the launcher. The status bar reads and it refuses to move. The excitement of the game is quickly replaced by the monotony of troubleshooting.
If you're experiencing subscription validation issues in AOE2: aoe2 validating subscriptions
✅ – Set to “automatic” in Windows settings. You stare at the launcher
The "Validating Subscriptions" screen freeze is a common issue in Age of Empires II (specifically the 2013 HD Edition on Steam) aoe2 validating subscriptions