1.  Just restart your PC and try to start the game again.

If that doesn’t work:
2. Please verify the integrity of the game cache with Steam:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335

If that also doesn’t work:
3. Make sure your firewall/antivirus software is put into gaming mode or has an exception for the game so it doesn’t block the game’s connection to the steam client.

“Access to the path is denied”

E.g. with the path “C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\ImagineEarth”.

This can happen when you played Imagine Earth before January 2020. We have change the location of the savegames. The game is trying to move your old savegames to the new location and may run into problems with access rights.

In this case please manually move your old savegames & profiles:
from %userprofile%\Documents\ImagineEarth
to %userprofile%\AppData\Local\ImagineEarth

In general

This error occurs when the game is trying to do a file operation (e.g. saving a game state) and the current system user doesn’t have access.

This is most likely related to the anti virus software on your system.

Try to set it into gaming mode or add imagine earth to the white list.

If this doesn’t work it often helps to completely uninstall the anti virus software and then reinstall it.

If it still doesn’t work please get in contact with us or have a look for other programs that might access the game’s savegames.