I recently had a chance to interview Chris Bergey, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Arm Holdings, surrounding the future of Windows on Arm in the realm of PC gaming. Bergeyamong features, highlights the strides that have been taken, assuring that compatibility concerns are significantly addressed.

While Windows on Arm has been in development for quite some time, its major leap occurred with the introduction of the Snapdragon X chips. Users initially encountered issues with application performance, yet Bergey insisted, “The compatibility thing, in our mind, is really something that’s largely a solved problem.”

He emphasized that the term “largely” includes a wide array of apps and user demographics. Moreover, Arm has been observing positive trends regarding native Arm applications, as nearly 90% of the time spent by users is on apps compatible with Arm. While this percentage does not reflect the total number of apps available, it indicates significant progress in tailored applications for the ecosystem.

As the conversation shifted towards the future of gaming on Windows on Arm, Bergey acknowledged existing challenges, particularly concerning anti-cheat mechanisms in games: “The way those anti-cheats are written doesn’t align with the Arm architecture, which is why issues arise.”

Despite ongoing hurdles, the gaming experience on Arm appears promising, and future cross-platform integrations may entice developers to support both Arm and x86 devices more seamlessly.

Ultimately, how developers choose to embrace Arm support will heavily influence the landscape of gaming compatibility moving forward.