FIFA Soccer 09 won't launch from the EA app - "Failed to launch game"

Hi,

FIFA Soccer 09 used to work for me, but now it will not start. The EA app shows "Failed to launch game - An error on our end caused the launch to fail."

Setup: Windows 11 Home, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, game installed through the EA app in C:\Program Files\EA Games\FIFA 09.

What I found:

- The FIFA09.exe in the install folder is only 1,426 bytes. If I run it directly, Windows says "This app can't run on your PC".

- After every clean install, the real game executable (about 12 MB) is placed in a folder called __conflict_xx (for example __conflict_fr) next to config.dat and gamedef.dll, instead of the main folder. It seems to be because the 1.4 KB file already has the same name.

- If I copy the 12 MB file into the main folder and run it directly, the screen goes black for a moment and the game closes with no error message. Earlier, Event Viewer logged exception c0000005 in that file (offset 0x000b240b).

What I have already tried:

- EA app Repair, uninstall and clean reinstall (renamed the old install folder first)

- Compatibility mode (Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7), run as administrator

- DirectX June 2010 redistributable

- DEP exception for the game

- Clearing the EA app cache and turning off the overlay

- Checking Windows Security (nothing blocked)

- Setting the GPU preference, turning off windowed game optimizations, and dgVoodoo2 (D3D9)

None of this changed anything. I also saw another user report that FIFA 10 installed through the EA app has a 2 KB FIFA10.exe and cannot launch either.

Is this a known issue with the old FIFA games in the EA app, and is there a fix?

Thanks!