I've been having this problem since yesterdays patch. I don't have a Anti Virus, had Anti Malware, deleted those, uninstalled/reinstalled 2 times now + numerous repairs. I've noticed two things, the USersettings.txt and Shadercache.cooked files both are not present during installation or after, I even tried using a roommates Shadercache and Usersettings to no avail. Thing is I had no problem loading the game before yesterday and release (beta's). The shadercache cooked problem and usersetting file missing from searches and my understanding has been around long before release however....
same problem.. patch dled... went to hit play.. just grayed out and nothing happened.. turned off firewall...anti-v..tried to run as admin...tried everything the forums said...tried repair...tried restarting and nothing...thanks for taking forever to respond to my emails and phone...oh wait they wont ever respond...your welcome for paying extra and barely getting to play.
I've gotten several emails in prompt time, I'm assuming the lack for others and the big awareness now is just focused attention on solving the issue at hand as quickly as possibly. The last email I recieved was asking me to data mine from their launcher by going to the Settings>About And Running the Game Consultant Test then sending them the report log. Maybe I'f more people do it someone or some people can point out the problem(s).
I had the same problem others have had. At first I had a problem just getting the patch to install properly. The launcher complained about a file in use. I looked through Task Manager and found ZoCrashReporter.exe. This is one of the executables in the game folder. After I killed it, I was able to finish patching, but then I couldn't launch the game. I hit PLAY and got an error immediately.
After checking this thread, I decided to look at my firewall and I didn't see ESO listed as approved, so I added a new inbound rule for the game and now it works. Yay!