Microsoft recently announced at their Windows and Surface event that “hundreds” of AAA and indie games will be compatible with NVIDIA RTX Spark PCs from day one. However, notable exceptions include the Call of Duty franchise, which will not have support until 2027. This statement by Pavan Davuluri, head of Windows and Devices, raises questions since Activision, the studio behind Call of Duty, is owned by Microsoft. The delay remains unexplained, leaving it unclear which specific Call of Duty title will eventually be supported.
The anticipated reason for this gap may involve anti-cheat issues. RTX Spark utilizes an Arm-based CPU, requiring that kernel-level anti-cheat drivers be rebuilt to function properly. Currently, Call of Duty relies on Activision’s Ricochet anti-cheat system, which is designed for x86 systems.
At the event, Davuluri demonstrated Gears of War: E-Day running at 60 FPS on the new Surface Laptop Ultra, although the resolution and upscaling settings were not provided, leaving uncertainty about the overall performance. Moreover, it’s ambiguous how many of the claimed “hundreds” of compatible games are native Arm versions versus those running through emulation.
In related news, NVIDIA introduced the RTX Spark toolkit for Windows-on-Arm game development in July, and several developers, including EA, Embark, and Ubisoft, have pledged support for titles like Apex Legends and Anno 117: Pax Romana. The Surface Laptop Ultra is set to start shipping on October 16, with a starting price of $2,599.
