This agreement between the two companies could have some weight in the negotiations taking place between Microsoft and regulators regarding the takeover of Activision Blizzard.
This Tuesday, February 21 was an important day for Microsoft. The American group was indeed invited to plead its case before the European Commission on the burning file of the takeover of the publisher Activision Blizzard.
GeForce NOW enriches its catalog with several hundred games, including the juggernaut call of duty
Microsoft did not come empty-handed and had several announcements up its sleeve to tip the scales in its favor. The first, and probably the most commented, is that of an agreement between the company and Nintendo. Microsoft is committed to offering its Xbox titles on the Japanese manufacturer’s platforms for 10 years. The press release highlights the brand call of duty which will be able to benefit from editions for the Nintendo Switch, and possibly a future game console when the manufacturer is ready to reveal its next machine.
Microsoft, after its hearing before the European regulatory authorities, held a press conference and mentioned to everyone’s surprise a new partnership, this time with NVIDIA. The group thus undertakes to offer Xbox titles on GeForce NOW on the day of their release or a few days later, depending on the game. If, once again, call of duty was highlighted, the two actors took care to specify that Activision Blizzard titles and those of Bethesda will also be available for players using the cloud gaming platform.
” Xbox remains committed to giving people more choice and finding ways to expand the way people play. commented Phil Spencer, president of the Xbox division at Microsoft. Rather cautious until then, NVIDIA now fully supports the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, happy as it must be to have recovered a few hundred titles which will soon enrich its catalog.
Microsoft intends to drop the argument of a monopoly on the cloud gaming sector
This announcement is obviously not innocent and could weigh in the negotiations currently underway between Microsoft and the international regulatory bodies. By signing an agreement with NVIDIA, Microsoft thwarts the argument that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard would allow the company to constitute a monopoly on cloud gaming by xCloud, its in-house solution. According to the British CMA, Microsoft would now claim between 60 and 70% of the cloud gaming market.
The group’s titles would be available here on another very popular platform, and consumers are free to choose how they want to play their favorite Xbox titles online.
There remains the question of the Game Pass. For the time being, the agreement only concerns Xbox games available for purchase, on the Xbox Store, Steam or Epic Games. Nothing has been specified as to the possibility of playing titles present on the subscription offer by GeForce NOW. It would not be forbidden to think that Microsoft will eventually offer this option, which is not very restrictive for it, since it leaves the load of the servers and the online game to its new partner, while keeping the user captive in its ecosystem. Xbox has everything to gain in this case, but it is possible that the brand today wants to avoid scaring regulators with an offer that is commercially unstoppable and which could be difficult to replicate by the competition.
With these two agreements announced in quick succession, Sony finds itself increasingly isolated in its fight to defeat the takeover of Activision Blizzard. An identical agreement was offered to him by Microsoft to guarantee the presence of call of duty on its platforms for a decade, but the Japanese giant has not followed up yet.
Source : Engadget
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