Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin's Creed Valhalla broken by latest Windows 11 update
Microsoft warns games can become "unresponsive while starting, loading or during active gameplay".
An array of Ubisoft games including Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora are broken on some devices running Windows 11 with version update 24H2 installed.
As such, Microsoft has blocked the Windows upgrade for some.
Microsoft has acknowledged the issues on its support site, and noted that certain Ubisoft games could become "unresponsive while starting, loading or during active gameplay". It added other users may be met with a black screen.
"To safeguard your Windows update experience, we have applied a compatibility hold on devices with these games installed," Microsoft wrote. "These devices will not be offered to install Windows 11, version 24H2 via the Windows Update release channel."
The company implores users to not manually install the update if they own the affected games, which are listed below:
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla
- Assassin's Creed Origins
- Assassin's Creed Odyssey
- Star Wars Outlaws
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Microsoft has issued a "temporary mitigation" for Star Wars Outlaws, which should prevent the game from failing and stop responding. It did note there may still be performance issues, however.
Microsoft is currently working on a fix with Ubisoft, promising more information when the companies know more. In the meantime, it has provided the following workaround for users who find a game stops responding to their demands.
- Open Task Manager. This can be accomplished by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard. Alternatively, you can right-click on the Start button and select Task Manager from the menu.
- In the Task Manager window, look for your game in the Processes tab. It might be listed under the name of the game or the game launcher.
- Click on the game’s name to highlight it. Then, click the End Task button at the bottom right of the window. This will close the game.
In other Ubisoft news, the publisher recently announced it was removing those really rather frustrating (read, incredibly frustrating) forced stealth sections from "almost all quest objectives" in Star Wars Outlaws.
Thanks to an update earlier this month, players will now be able to enter combat after getting caught while sneaking, rather than getting ported back to the last checkpoint and being made to start the section again.