Microsoft said it will soon bring PC games to Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service as a way to help push its proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft and Nvidia announced the partnership in a joint press release, which “addresses 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 will also be offered on the Nvidia service when the deal is completed.
The deal allows Microsoft’s Xbox PC games purchased within the Microsoft Store to be streamed through Nvidia’s service, as well as Xbox PC games purchased through Steam or the Epic Games Store.
Microsoft also shared today that it is ending a 10-year agreement to deliver the latest version of Call of Duty on the Nintendo platform after the merger with Activision Blizzard, which was announced last December.
Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard could be the largest in the history of the gaming industry, ending an effort by Microsoft to acquire first-party game developers and publishers after years of criticism it lacks talent within 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—caught the eyes of regulators, however, who worried that the consolidation would 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, the same as GeForce Now.