Might seem a bit obvious but even if your PC doesn't quite meet the requirements I suggest trying the demo from epic or steam. If it works, then its safe to say to move onto the next step...but just to be safe: (Note this is taken from Quantic Dream's support page - https://www.quanticdream.com/en/detroit-become-human-support)

MINIMUM SPEC:
• OS: Windows 10 (64 bit)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 @ 2.8 GHz or Ryzen 3 1200 @ 3.1 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.2 GHz
• Memory: 8GB RAM
• Video: Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 or AMD Radeon HD 7950 (Support of Vulkan 1.1 required)
• Video RAM: 3GB or more
• Hard Disk: 55GB

RECOMMENDED SPEC:
• OS: Windows 10 (64 bit)
• Processor: i5-6600 @ 3.3GHz or Ryzen 3 1300X @ 3.4 GHz
• Memory: 12GB RAM
• Video: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580 (Support of Vulkan 1.1 required)
• Video RAM: 4GB or more
• Hard Disk: 55GB

• Detroit: Become Human PC does not support Intel GPUs (they are below the minimum specifications)
  
  
• I HAVE RECENTLY CHANGED MY AMD GPU AND MY GAME IS UNSTABLE OR SLOW EVER SINCE (AMD GPU ONLY):
  If you have recently changed your AMD GPU and your game has become unstable or slow, please delete the VkPipelineCache.bak and VkPipelineCache.bin files located in the “ShaderCache” folder of your game installation folder, then relaunch the game.
  
  
• I AM UNABLE TO LAUNCH THE GAME AND I GET NO ERROR MESSAGE
  In this case, please try disabling any software that could communicate with the game, thus preventing it from launching properly, as this is the most common cause for this issue. This includes, for example:
  
  Screen recording software
  Post-processing software
  Performance monitoring software
  
  
  Please give it a vote up and fav if this helped, comment to let me know if your still having trouble or got it working and let me know what fixed it for you!

Make sure you have updated GPU drivers + Vulkan drivers
Latest DirectX drivers (note: you can still do this anyways, it won't hurt and may benefit other games)

So if like me, the demo ran fine you have everything updated but simply wouldn't even attempt to run the game?

Here is the few things I attempted.

Verify integrity of game files
Made the exe file run as admin
Changed the folder to not read only (both Detroit: Become Human folder and the whole of the common folder located in steam's folder)
rebooted steam+PC

For those who are interested my PC specs are

i9-9900K
GTX 1060 6GB driver 446.14 *working*.
(It's from a previous build and waiting for the 3000 series to drop so yes I know its stupid to have that cpu and this gpu together lol).
32GB ram


While writing the above I thought I'd also test the beta drivers. It said what driver version I had and what I was currently going to install. I thought I'd check out the graphicsoptions.json file and found oddly it reported an much newer driver version "446.14". This was before running the game with the new beta drivers.



The new beta drivers claimed I have downgraded and I may get slow performance. Booted up the game and now my game hardly runs. It seems I downgraded and didn't get the right drivers and I'm quite confused lol. But the game said it needs at least 445.87 or newer (mine was older and worked fine?) and I had installed from the beta one 443.24 from the link provided yet it installed 432.00. I just went back to 446.14 which I didn't have before or couldn't get before I dunno wtf's going on tbh but I had only installed GeForce Experience last night so will report if the 446.14 is working well for myself.

Even more confused it seems the beta updater said I had another driver version *where I got 443.24 from* but it seems I had been running 446.14 the whole time as reported via the graphicsoptions.json file.


Ok so I've just got numbers mixed up by the looks of it if your running at least 443.24 your running Vulkan 1.2 Developer Beta drivers. (Feel free to tell me if that's right or if I'm wrong).


Just a little note, if you use GeForce Experience to get the latest drivers make sure your getting the game ready driver as shown.


I noticed my PC was not running the game as well or so I thought. Remember when you update drivers (not sure if this applies to AMD users) but for Nvidia users, make sure your telling your PC to use the GPU for PhysX and such to use instead of having it on auto.

So you may need to also do the things I mentioned just above but it worked as soon as I did this..

Type in DirectX June 2010 into google (or even DirectX June) and its normally the first link that says
"Download DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) from..." click on that and you should see a screen like this...



Download it, run as admin then tell it to install anywhere.

It then places a whole bunch of DirectX files into a folder, simply look for the "DXSETUP.exe" and run as admin.

This will install all files your PC may not have, it will not remove or break anything DirectX related or anything for that matter.

Once its installed, hit finish you can clean up and delete the folder the DirectX installer created for you, all the files needed are installed.

Give the game a go and lemme know if it worked?
If not, try other things as mentioned as above - make the exe file run as admin, change the installation folder to not read only (let me know if I should explain a bit about this or if you need help in doing so).

So if your still having issues - such as getting an error message it might be best to follow the link I provided up the top and contact QD themselves. Or it may be a wait and see if they update the game for fixes and such but by the looks of it, it seems they are treating it as a you problem, your hardware/software..which in some cases it may be true but either way we just need to find out what's stopping it.



"If this error message is displayed, it means that the game has encountered an unexpected error, resulting in a crash. After pressing OK, and having quit the game, you should be able to launch the game again without issues. If it is not the case, please contact us."

• Update: Thanks to Einherjer's insight that installing DirectX file's won't do ♥♥♥♥, so feel free to try the stuff before it or you can also try it for your other games either way it's not a bad thing for your PC.
  "Game runs in Vulkan and not DirectX so updating DirectX does absolutely nothing btw.
  Try the Vulkan 1.2 developer beta drivers if you are on nvidia https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver" - Einherjer
  
  I found the link was broken when following the link but if you type in "nvidia vulkan-driver" into google, it should be the first one and it goes to the link listed so not sure why it doesn't take you to the page when the URL is the same. Scroll down a bit until you see "Vulkan 1.2 Developer Beta Driver Downloads")
  
  
• Update 2: "if you have the vk error you can try this
  First, device administrator -> disable amd radeom vega 8 graphics, and launch the game, maybe will appear an error saying that you need to upgrade the drivers from nvidia -> upgrade. and launch the game, the game starts a lilttle bit bug and lag. later while the game is launching in background you enable again radeon vega 8 graphics" - 基聖
  
  
• Update 3: You can try disabling Steam Overlay, Nvidia shadowplay (and if AMD has its own sort of shadowplay overlay).
  
  
• Update 4:
  Found out what my issue was! I use something called ReShade and I didn't realize it affected all Vulkan games by default. I just had to untick that and the game booted right up afterward. - Mouseasel https://i.imgur.com/s64AwOu.png <- the former source of the issue.
  
  
• Update 5:
  SOLVED!!!!
  @F00X this guys found problem solved.
  
  THIS!
  
  deleting "SteamOverlayVulkanLayer64.json" in your steam folder. It should be in your root steam folder.
  E.G: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam
  
  They mentioned that once you restart your PC, the file might reappear, so you may have to delete it again then.
  
  Note that this will disable the steam overlay, which is a bummer, but at least it's playable. - GT4tube
  
  
• Update 6:
  I disabled ReShade 4.61 on Vulkan games & it started right up for me. - Moragne
  
  
• Update 7:
  I disabled my internet and it went very smoothly without any issues - Cap'n Squidward
  
  
• Update 8 (email from QD to customer)
  Dear Customer, Thank you for contacting Quantic Dream Support. We're sorry to hear you're having issues with Detroit: Become Human. We are aware that there is a problem running the game on the latest version of Nvidia's drivers (v451.48) released on June 24, 2020, and we are currently investigating. In the meantime, we recommend trying to use the previous Nvidia drivers (v446.14) released on May 27, 2020 - ∞In§an¡ty•

Sorry this guide is quick hack job, if more people find this helped them and needs improvements or things added to it I will give it a go..I just got it working and thought fu!k this, I'm writing a guide lol.

Please give it a vote up and fav if this helped, comment to let me know if your still having trouble or got it working and let me know what fixed it for you!