Leo ventured into a Reddit thread from 2015, where a user with a skull avatar had posted: “Just copy the Steamclient64.dll from a working game, lol.” Another reply warned: “Do not listen to him. That will break Steam.”
The error message “Steam must be running to play this game” typically appears when:
Sometimes, a previous crash leaves a hidden background process running in the background. This tricks your PC into thinking the game is active while blocking any new attempts to launch it.
Go to your DmC Binaries\Win32 folder. Step 2: Right-click DMC.exe > Properties . Step 3: Go to the Compatibility tab. Step 4: Check the following boxes: Leo ventured into a Reddit thread from 2015,
No error.
This forces the game to use the exact DLL version that is currently running your Steam client, bypassing pathing errors.
If you use software like Avast, AVG, or Bitdefender, open its dashboard, locate the "Exceptions" or "Whitelist" panel, and add the game executable. Go to your DmC Binaries\Win32 folder
Completely close out of Steam by clicking in the top-left corner of the client and selecting Exit . Re-open Steam and attempt to launch the game. Step 2: Elevate Administrative Privileges
Editing registry entries can be a bit tricky, so proceed with caution:
(Right-click > Properties > Read-only). This prevents Steam from overwriting your launch fixes. Step 4: Check the following boxes: No error
Before trying advanced steps, perform these basic troubleshooting actions:
The "Steam must be running to play this game" error in DmC: Devil May Cry
April 12, 2026 Affected Software: DmC: Devil May Cry (2013) – Steam edition Affected OS: Windows 10/11 (also legacy Windows 7/8)
: Use Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) to ensure no other instances of the game or its processes are "stuck" in the background.