i beleive i've had this exact same issue. I open the game through steam, or the shortcut on my desktop, and after a moment of steam preparing it, my curser switches to the game curser, and the launcher appears. Though, after i press play, the launcher dissappears, and nothing else happens. Steam says the app is running, and the only way for me to end it is too go into the processes of task manager, and go to the top where it also shows that the launcher is running, and end it from there. i've installed and uninstalled it twice by now, i may have missed the part where you said to have windows show hidden folders, so perhaps i missed a hidden mount and blade folder after i uninstalled and deleted the remaining folder. i have no mods btw, and no explanation as to why this is happening. This is also the only thread i found in hours of searching where someone else had an issue sounding like mine. Seeing it resolved gave me hope, but it appears it hasn't worked for me yet. again i may have missed a hidden folder that i should now be able to see this time around, and once i reinstall bannerlord i'll see if it'll actually work for me. The last time i actually played it was in August, and i have 170 hours in the game, and now reinstalling it recently, i've never experienced such a thing like this where the game simply doesn't open after the launcher. any help or advice would be very much appreciated, as i hope to find out if new optimizations and patches will give me a more smooth experience then previously.