Microsoft has blocked the latest Windows 11 update on PCs with Star Wars Outlaws and other Ubisoft games installed

First reported by Bleeping Computer, Microsoft is now preventing Windows 11's 24H2 update from being sent out to machines that have a selection of recent Ubisoft games installed on them. A number of users have reported persistent, unworkable crashing, sometimes on startup, when trying to play the affected games.

"After installing Windows 11, version 24H2, you might encounter issues with some Ubisoft games. These games might become unresponsive while starting, loading or during active gameplay," Microsoft wrote in a help article about 24H2's known issues. "To safeguard your Windows update experience, we have applied a compatibility hold on devices with these games installed. These devices will not be offered to install Windows 11, version 24H2 via the Windows Update release channel." If you've already had 24H2 installed and don't want to wait for a fix to play these games, your best bet is probably rolling back to version 23H2 for the time being.

24H2 began a phased rollout at the beginning of October, and Bleeping Computer found numerous posts on Reddit and the Microsoft answers forums reporting issues with the games since the rollout. More frustrating are the reports dating back to the preview version of 24H2 for Windows Insiders. Rachidramone on the Windows Insiders subreddit described the issue exactly as it appears now and with Ubisoft games all the way back in July. The affected games acknowledged by Microsoft are:

• Assassin's Creed Valhalla
• Assassin's Creed Origins
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey
• Star Wars Outlaws
• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

It does seem that a few other Ubisoft games have been affected as well, with Far Cry and Need for Speed: Unbound cited by rachidramone back in July. Ubisoft has pushed out a hotfix that should allow Outlaws to run on 24H2, but we're still waiting on a more permanent fix for all affected games from either Microsoft or Ubisoft.

The combination of the issue's seeming publisher-specific nature, as well as the decision to preemptively block it on systems with the games installed, is very surprising to me—I don't recall seeing anything quite like this before. I'm extremely curious about what precisely caused the issue, and whether the fault lies with Microsoft, Ubisoft, or both.