Microsoft plans to bring PC Game Pass titles to Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service. Sarah Bond, head of Xbox Creator Experience, announced the move at an exclusive Xbox media conference in Los Angeles on Sunday. “You’ll be able to play the PC Game Pass catalog on all Nvidia GeForce Now-supported devices,” Bond said.
“This will enable the PC Game Pass catalog to be played on any device that GeForce Now streams to, such as low-spec PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, mobile devices, TVs, and more, and we’ll be rolling this out in the coming months,” says Joe Skribels, President Xbox Wire edit, in a blog post.
GeForce Now members will be able to “stream select PC games from the library,” so it doesn’t look like it will be the full catalog. Either way, this is a big deal for cloud gaming, allowing PC Game Pass subscribers to use Nvidia’s superior game streaming service with RTX 4080 levels of performance. In our own testing, we found that GeForce Now’s RTX 4080-class was significantly better than Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming offerings for performance and response time.
It also means Microsoft’s promised Microsoft Store support for GeForce Now goes beyond your purchases and extends to your PC Game Pass subscription. Nvidia previously said that Microsoft Store support on GeForce Now “will become available in the coming months,” so we may not have to wait long to see PC Game Pass on GeForce Now.
All of this work is part of a new partnership between Microsoft and Nvidia that sees Xbox PC games come to GeForce Now. Microsoft entered into a 10-year agreement with Nvidia earlier this year to license Xbox PC games to GeForce Now as part of a broader effort to appease regulators over the proposed Activision Blizzard deal. The deal also includes access to Activision Blizzard titles if Microsoft’s proposed acquisition is approved by regulators.
UK regulators blocked the deal over cloud competition concerns, despite Microsoft’s 10-year deals with several cloud gaming competitors. Microsoft is now offering its PC Game Pass subscription on a rival cloud gaming service, in a surprising move that could help it convince regulators about the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
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