Nvidia and Microsoft have confirmed that Activision Blizzard games will follow as soon as the deal is done.
Microsoft announced a ten-year licensing agreement with Nvidia at a press conference in Brussels. The deal aims to stream its Xbox PC games via GeForce Now. If the $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition goes ahead, Xbox will also bring Activision Blizzard games to Nvidia’s cloud gaming service.
The news comes a day after Microsoft signed a ten-year deal with Nintendo to bring future Xbox games, such as Call of Duty, to Nintendo after the Activision Blizzard deal closes.
Microsoft offered the same deal to Sony, which Sony reportedly turned down. Activision’s head of communications shared his thoughts on Sony’s move in a meme posted on Twitter.
According to Reuters, Microsoft president Brad Smith said he was more confident the acquisition would go through after announcing the two deals. Smith tweeted, “With today’s agreements with Nvidia and Nintendo, we will bring Call of Duty to 150 million new devices. That will serve consumers AND advance competition”.
With these agreements, Microsoft is trying to ease regulators’ concerns that with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, games like Call of Duty could be taken off competing platforms and be limited to Xbox.
Microsoft has promised the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) that Call of Duty will remain available on other platforms after the acquisition. Now, in addition to the purchase, Nvidia said in a press release that the new deal “delivers the increased choice to gamers and resolves Nvidia’s concerns with Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard”.
Following the announcement, Xbox boss Phil Spencer tweeted. According to Nvidia, Call of Duty will not be available on GeForce Now until the Activision deal is closed. But Microsoft’s in-house games are immediately covered by the new ten-year agreement.
Source: Venture Beat, Reuters
— Lulu Cheng Meservey (@lulumeservey) February 21, 2023
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