Microsoft brings its PC games to GeForce Now to grease Activision deal

Microsoft said it will immediately bring its PC games to Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service as a way to help push through its proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft and Nvidia announced the partnership in a jointly issued press release, which “resolves Nvidia’s concerns with Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.” According to CNBC, Microsoft president Brad Smith said that, in addition to the PC games agreement, all Activision Blizzard games would also be offered on the Nvidia service if the deal goes through.

The deal will allow Microsoft’s Xbox PC games purchased within the Microsoft Store to be streamed via Nvidia’s service, as well as Xbox PC games purchased through Steam or the Epic Games Store.

Microsoft also shared today that it finalized a 10-year agreement to bring the latest version of Call of Duty to the Nintendo platform following the merger with Activision Blizzard, which it had announced last December.

Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard would be by far the largest in the history of the gaming industry, capping an effort by Microsoft to acquire first-party games developers and publishers after years of being criticized that it lacked such talent inside its ranks. The list of deals—$2.5 billion for Mojang and Minecraft, $375 million for Rare, $7.5 billion for ZeniMax and Bethesda, iD Software, and others—has attracted the eyes of regulators, however, who worry that the consolidation will give Microsoft too much market power.

Microsoft’s Game Pass service, which provides an all-you-can-eat library of PC and Xbox console games, has attracted 25 million subscribers, CNBC reported, about the same as GeForce Now.

Gaming