Arm-Based Windows 11 PCs Can Now Download and Play Games from the Xbox App

Microsoft’s Xbox app on Windows 11 now supports game downloads on all ARM-based PCs. Until now, the Xbox app on Qualcomm-powered PCs was restricted to cloud gaming with a Game Pass subscription, but that’s finally changing today.

As you may recall, Microsoft first brought game downloads and local play on Arm-based Windows 11 PCs to Xbox Insiders in August. That same month, Epic Games made its Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) system compatible with Windows on ARM, which made it possible to run Fortnite and other games relying on EAC on the platform.

If most games on the Xbox app use the x64 architecture, Microsoft’s Prism emulator on ARM-based devices was also updated in December, and it now supports the translation of the AVX and AVX2 x86 instruction set architecture extensions. This makes it possible to run even more x86-based games on Windows on ARM, and the Windows Performance Fit feature in the Xbox app indicates whether a game should play well on a given device based on its hardware specs.

“Today, more than 85% of the Game Pass catalog is compatible with these PCs, and we’re actively working with partners to expand support even further. For titles not yet supported running locally, Xbox Cloud Gaming remains an easy way to jump in while we work with partners to broaden compatibility,” Microsoft said today.

As of today, it’s hard to recommend an ARM-based Windows 11 PC to play games, but emulation performance is now decent on devices with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Series chips. Performance should improve even further on devices powered by Qualcomm’s upcoming X2 series chips, though it could be a while before developers really start releasing native ARM64 versions of their games.