If you remember well, at the beginning of the week we had an unexpected bombshell: Microsoft reached an agreement with Ubisoft to bring Activision Blizzard games to the French cloud. This move is nothing more than avoiding being accused of a monopoly by entities like the UK’s CMA.
The thing is, this move wasn’t the first step Xbox took in that direction, as you will know if you read our magazine. Microsoft has been working with Nvidia for a while to bring their cloud games to the graphics and ray tracing company’s cloud. And today, that deal comes into effect.
Nvidia has started offering access to PC Game Pass and Microsoft Store titles through its GeForce Now streaming service.
Today, Microsoft’s games arrive on GeForce Now
PC Game Pass subscribers will be able to start streaming titles through GeForce Now today, August 24th, including Microsoft games like Deathloop and Grounded, as well as third-party titles like No Man’s Sky.
Although PC Game Pass and Microsoft Store games will be available on GeForce Now, not all of them will be immediately playable on Nvidia’s service.
Nvidia has integrated the Microsoft Store into GeForce Now, but it still needs to add all the games available with a PC Game Pass subscription.
This means that PC Game Pass subscribers and anyone who has purchased a game from the Microsoft Store may have to wait a bit longer for their entire library to be available on GeForce Now.
An agreement that was signed in May
The companies signed a 10-year agreement that allows Nvidia to license Xbox games for PC to GeForce Now as part of a broader effort by Microsoft to appease regulators regarding its proposed deal with Activision Blizzard.
The agreement also includes access to Activision Blizzard titles if Microsoft completes the acquisition.
And all of this to appease regulators
As you know, cloud gaming has proven to be a controversial aspect of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority cited it as the main reason for blocking the deal in April.
In response, Microsoft plans to sell its cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard to Ubisoft in an attempt to gain approval for the operation in the UK.
This way, Ubisoft will control the streaming rights for Activision Blizzard games outside of the EU and will license the titles to Microsoft to include them in Xbox Cloud Gaming.
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