Microsoft's dedication to making its PC and Xbox games available on competing cloud platforms is becoming a reality as the first Xbox first-party title arrives on Nvidia GeForce Now, marking the beginning of several such releases.
Gears 5, a gritty sci-fi shooter developed by Microsoft's Xbox studio, The Coalition, and published in 2019, becomes the inaugural title to join GeForce Now. Nvidia confirms that additional Microsoft titles, including Deathloop, Grounded, and Pentiment, will follow soon, with the first batch scheduled for release on Thursday, May 25.
Microsoft declined to provide a release date for any of its other games, including Halo Infinite, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Microsoft Flight Simulator. However, the collaboration closes a gap in the GeForce Now game library, which enables you to stream PC games that you already own from servers that are GPU-powered by Nvidia.
As Microsoft stated (Opens in a new window), this marks the initial phase of their forward-looking 10-year collaboration with Nvidia, aimed at making PC games from Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda accessible to members of GeForce Now.
In an effort to secure regulatory permission for Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, which is the owner of several well-known gaming brands, including Call of Duty, Diablo, and Starcraft, the business is bringing its titles to Nvidia's GeForce Now platform.
Concerned that Microsoft would make the brands exclusive to the Xbox platform, including its gaming streaming service, Xbox gaming Pass, UK and US regulators have taken action to halt the sale. In response, Redmond has pledged to make Microsoft's PC/Xbox titles available on a number of cloud gaming services, including Nvidia's GeForce Now.
Regulators in the European Union were persuaded by the remedy, and the purchase bid was approved earlier this week. Therefore, Activision-Blizzard games will also be available on GeForce Now and other cloud gaming platforms if Microsoft is successful in obtaining complete regulatory certification in the US.
Microsoft, however, has only promised to release the games on the competing platforms for ten years. Therefore, it's feasible that the business will change its cloud gaming approach in the long run.