I had the same issue after I started using Xcode 6.1 and changed my launcher images. I had all images in an Asset Catalog. I would get only a black screen instead of the expected static image. After trying so many things, I realised the problem was that the Asset Catalog had the Project 'Target Membership' ticked-off in its FileInspector view. Ticking it to ON did the magic and the image started to appear on App launch.