There’s a particularly annoying bug in Civ 6 currently that that makes loading either painstakingly long or gets stuck on the loading screen indefinitely. Fear not you budding empire builders, GameWatcher has you covered with a fix that should fix the dreaded loading screen freeze.
It appears that the root of the issue comes from anti-virus software and more specifically the built-in Windows Defender for Windows 10. We’re not one for recommending disabling anti-virus software as you never know what could happen, but there is an easily solution regardless.
Whichever software you use, before booting up the game make sure to manually add an exception for civ 6 on your virus software and this should solve the problem.
If Windows defender is the issue here’s how to add an exception:
-
Hit the Start Menu, then Settings, then Update & Security, then Windows Defender
-
You don’t need to hit the button to open the full app on this screen, so ignore that
-
Instead, scroll down and find a header titled ‘Exclusions’.
-
Hit Add an Exclusion and then Exclude a Folder.
-
Navigate to your Civ 6 installation folder and tell Defender this is what you want to exclude. For most people, that’ll be C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier’s Civilization VI – or where ever you’ve told Steam to install games.
For other anti-virus software make sure to head over to the companies website and check the manual. Happy conquering!
