Hey Sober, thank you for the suggestion! However, I tried and it doesn't work. The game still refuses to launch.
I've tried your suggestion with both Steam and Uplay, and nothing works. If I try to launch the game through Uplay, I get a spinning blue circle for a couple of seconds and then nothing. If I try to launch via Steam, it always asks me if I will allow Steam to make changes to my computer. If I click yes, it says it's trying to install Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 for the initial first time launch of the game, and then nothing at all happens. If I click "no" to changes, nothing at all happens.
Either way I go, when I click play in either Uplay or Steam, nothing happens.
Anybody else have any suggestions?