In what is largely considered a move to help close its acquisition of Activision, Microsoft has worked out a deal with GeForce NOW to bring its own Xbox PC titles to the competing cloud service.
This was announced during a briefing in Brussels today with Microsoft, where it was also noted that NVIDIA no longer opposes the acquisition. Phil Spencer then went on to tout the deal himself on Twitter:
This is a major win for cloud gamers in general and GeForce NOW (assuming everything goes through) in particular. The service should see access to games like Forza, Minecraft Dungeons and Hi-Fi Rush. Not to mention more games from Bethesda and the Halo series!
In its own announcement of the deal, NVIDIA was quick to mention that games should begin arriving soon and that third party titles that are purchased from the Xbox PC store will be streamable via GFN as well:
Microsoft and NVIDIA will begin work immediately to integrate Xbox PC games into GeForce NOW, so that GeForce NOW members can stream PC games they buy in the Windows Store, including third-party partner titles where the publisher has granted streaming rights to NVIDIA. Xbox PC games currently available in third party stores like Steam or Epic Games Store will also be able to be streamed through GeForce NOW.
We think this is a move that makes a lot of sense, GeForce NOW is a service that is at its best when played on PC where it acts a bit like a remote frontend for existing PC stores. Xbox’s PC offering should fit nicely here. This is complimentary to Xbox Cloud Gaming in many ways – which can be thought of more as bringing a dead-simple console like experience to the cloud. In both cases, players will still be utilizing Xbox platform features like friend’s lists and achievements.
