Microsoft is Bringing Xbox PC Games to Nvidia’s GeForce Now

News broke about Microsoft bringing its Xbox games for PC to Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service as it seeks to convince EU regulators to approve its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

“Microsoft will be bringing its Xbox games that play on PCs to Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service,” said Microsoft President Brad Smith, “We will also bring all of Activision Blizzard’s titles including Call of Duty to GeForce Now.”

The gaming service

In reality the deal is simply a 10-year deal for streaming rights, as you’ll have to buy the games you want individually before you can play them on GeForce Now. Still, Microsoft is committed to making its games available to stream, whether you buy them from the Windows Store, Steam, or the Epic Games Store.

Xbox Cloud Gaming:

This Windows Xbox Cloud Gaming service isn’t really mentioned, nor is the larger Xbox Game Pass, which can include access to Xbox games for PC.

Also on the other hand, Nvidia VP Phil Eisler said he couldn’t talk about Game Pass specifically.

What does the agreement include?

Going back to Phil Eisler’s statements, he says the deal includes commitments to make Microsoft-owned games available on GeForce Now “on or as close to the day and date as possible” with their PC release, including Minecraft, and will include Battle.net titles like Overwatch if the Activision Blizzard deal goes through. Still, even though the games will most likely start coming to GFN in a few weeks, it could take a year for the whole process to complete. In case you want to know more about what Phil Eisler said, you can check in the link the interview where he talks about the agreement.

Nvidia

With this agreement, Nvidia publicly supports Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal, mentioning that “The partnership delivers increased choice to gamers and resolves Nvidia’s concerns with Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Nvidia therefore is offering its full support for regulatory approval of the acquisition,” this was what Nvidia said at its press conference it held.

Microsoft revealed that it had signed a binding 10-year agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms, and just hours later the deal we’ve been talking about today came to pass. On the other hand, Microsoft is said to have also offered Sony a similar 10-year deal on new Call of Duty games.

Also, the PlayStation maker has yet to sign a deal, and this may likely be because it opposes Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision and any Call of Duty deal would help strengthen Microsoft’s position, but PlayStation hasn’t confirmed. even if there will be an agreement or not.

“It’s really a question of whether they [regulators] want to block this deal or approve it with a set of guardrails… remedies, and solutions,” this is what Smith mentioned, as cloud gaming was undoubtedly one of the main concerns of the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

Now Microsoft hopes this Nvidia deal for Xbox PC games will sway regulators as well, or at least convince them that the software giant won’t lock its games behind its own streaming service.