Just yesterday, I was sitting here, at my desk, writing about how Microsoft has signed a 10-year partnership with Nintendo to bring its games to the Switch. While putting the news piece together, I mentioned that I doubted this would be the only major announcement from Microsoft heading our way, as the wording Microsft used during the announcement alluded to it only being the start of things to come.
How right I was. This morning Microsoft and NVIDIA officially announced that the two companies had signed a 10-year partnership (sound familiar?) to bring the Xbox PC games you know and love to the NVIDIA GeForce NOW cloud gaming service.
Now for those who may not remember, back in November of 2022, we here at NAG covered that NVIDIA has partnered with rain in South Africa to bring GeForce NOW cloud gaming here, to us, in the first quarter of 2023. GeForce NOW is NVIDIA’s premium cloud gaming service, seamlessly streaming PC games from the world’s most powerful GeForce-powered servers in the cloud at ultra-low latency. Members can stream titles they already own from popular digital gaming stores, including Steam, Epic, Ubisoft, and Origin, even on underpowered devices.
This agreement between Microsoft and NVIDIA means that members can stream Xbox PC titles from GeForce NOW to PCs, macOS, Chromebooks, smartphones and other devices. It will also enable Activision Blizzard PC titles, such as Call of Duty, to be streamed on GeForce NOW when and if Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision closes.
Microsoft and NVIDIA have already begun working 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.