[UPDATE] The press release is now available, adding some details to the announcement.
Microsoft and NVIDIA are reportedly working to integrate Xbox PC games into GeForce NOW as soon as possible, whether purchased via the Microsoft Store, Steam, or the Epic Games Store.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a statement:
Xbox remains committed to giving people more choice and finding ways to expand how people play. This partnership will help grow NVIDIA’s catalog of titles to include games like Call of Duty, while giving developers more ways to offer streaming games. We are excited to offer gamers more ways to play the games they love.
Jeff Fisher, senior VP for GeForce at NVIDIA, added:
Combining the incredibly rich catalog of Xbox first party games with GeForce NOW’s high-performance streaming capabilities will propel cloud gaming into a mainstream offering that appeals to gamers at all levels of interest and experience. Through this partnership, more of the world’s most popular titles will now be available from the cloud with just a click, playable by millions more gamers.
[ORIGINAL STORY] At a press conference organized this afternoon in Brussels, Belgium, Microsoft president Brad Smith revealed (via Tom Warren) that all Xbox games available on the PC platform will be added to the GeForce NOW library as part of an agreement with NVIDIA.
You’ll recall that NVIDIA recently relayed some concerns to the US Federal Trade Commission regarding the $68.7 acquisition of Activision Blizzard. At the time, NVIDIA stressed the need to for ‘equal and open access to all games’. The GeForce company is now supportive of the deal. Crucially, Smith said the same would extend to Activision Blizzard’s games if the $68.7 billion passes the regulatory hurdles. This would be a net win for NVIDIA as it never had Microsoft’s Xbox games on GeForce NOW, while Activision Blizzard’s games were removed from GFN once the service launched out of beta in early 2020.
Cloud gaming concerns were at the core of the objections made by the FTC and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) against the deal’s completion. The FTC actually sued to block the deal, while the CMA has provisionally found that Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard would harm competition. The European Union’s regulatory body didn’t release a final statement yet, but it is known to be similarly concerned.
Microsoft is trying to assuage those concerns with a series of deals and maneuvers. Earlier today, we learned of a binding 10-year agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms if the deal goes through. During the aforementioned press conference, Brad Smith sent a comment to Sony (again, via Tom Warren):
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.
Microsoft offered the same 10-year agreement to bring Call of Duty to PlayStation platforms with full parity of content and features. Still, Sony has refused so far. Per Jez Corden’s tweet, who is also at the conference, the documents are ready if Sony wants to sign that deal. Smith also said that one of the potential structural remedies suggested by the CMA, selling Call of Duty to another company, is neither reasonable nor realistic.
