Xbox has signed a 10-year agreement to bring its PC games to Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service.
Under this deal, Xbox’s PC titles will be playable through GeForce Now on PCs, macOS, Chromebooks, smartphones and other supported devices. This includes Xbox’s existing games and future titles, such as Activision Blizzard’s catalogue (including Call of Duty) should Microsoft’s acquisition of the company be approved.
In a statement, Nvidia said this partnership “resolves” its concerns with Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard and it’s “therefore is offering its full support for regulatory approval of the acquisition.” Bloomberg had previously reported that Nvidia was one of several companies that had been apprehensive that Microsoft owning the Call of Duty publisher would hinder competition.
While Microsoft doesn’t anticipate the deal closing until mid-2023, it says it will “begin work immediately” with Nvidia to integrate its Xbox PC games into GeForce Now. This will allow members to “stream PC games they buy in the Windows Store, including third-party partner titles where the publisher has granted streaming rights to Nvidia.” Xbox PC games offered on third-party stores like Steam or Epic Games Store will also be made available for streaming through GeForce Now.
The Nvidia deal comes hot on the heels of Microsoft signing a separate 10-year agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to the Japanese gaming giant’s platforms. Microsoft says it’s offered a similar deal to Sony, although the PlayStation maker has yet to accept. Speaking at a conference in Brussels, Microsoft president Brad Smith said Sony “can spend all of its energy trying to block this deal […] or it can sit down with us and hammer out an agreement that addresses what it says it’s concerned about, mainly the access to Call of Duty in the future.”
The primary point of contention in PlayStation’s efforts to stop the deal has been Call of Duty. The company argues that Microsoft owning the franchise and putting it on its Xbox Game Pass service as previously announced would harm sales on PlayStation and other platforms. Microsoft, therefore, has been looking to make deals with companies like Nvidia and Nintendo to show regulatory groups that it’s willing to play nice — at least for the first 10 years.
Microsoft has also argued that PlayStation and Nintendo are bigger players in the gaming industry in an effort to diminish how much of an impact its acquisition would have. To that point, the company most recently made the case that it only has a 20 percent market share in Europe compared to Sony’s 80 percent.
It remains to be seen if and when the Activision Blizzard deal will be closed.
Source: Nvidia
