Microsoft is investigating a potential issue with the August 2026 updates that may prevent some games from launching or cause them to crash on affected Windows 11 systems.
The confirmation follows user reports that a limited number of games, including ARC Raiders, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, and The Finals, become unresponsive on devices running Windows 11, version 25H2, and Windows 11, version 24H2.
The complete list of symptoms users are experiencing on impacted systems includes:
- games freezing
- games closing without notice
- "EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION" errors
- and unexpected system restarts
"Following the release of Windows updates on August 11, 2026 (KB5121003) and later, Microsoft received reports of issues involving inability to run games as expected," Microsoft said in a Windows release health dashboard update on Wednesday.
"We are presently investigating to determine if this is an issue caused by Microsoft. We will provide an update when more information is available."