diff --git a/src/backends/meta-backend.c b/src/backends/meta-backend.c
index 4a88c89d1..79e5f2e2f 100644
--- a/src/backends/meta-backend.c
+++ b/src/backends/meta-backend.c
@@ -626,7 +626,10 @@ meta_clutter_init (void)
   meta_create_backend ();
 
   if (clutter_init (NULL, NULL) != CLUTTER_INIT_SUCCESS)
-    g_error ("Unable to initialize Clutter.\n");
+    {
+      g_warning ("Unable to initialize Clutter.\n");
+      exit (1);
+    }
 
   /*
    * XXX: We cannot handle high dpi scaling yet, so fix the scale to 1