Microsoft plans to bring PC Game Pass titles to Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service. Sarah Bond, head of Xbox creator experience, announced the decision at a private Xbox press conference in Los Angeles on Sunday. “You will be able to play your PC Game Pass catalog on all Nvidia GeForce Now supported devices,” Bond said.
“This will allow the PC Game Pass catalog to be played on any device GeForce Now is streaming to, such as PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, mobile devices, TVs and more, and we will be rolling it out in the coming months,” says Joe Skrebels, Xbox Wire Editor, in a blog post.
GeForce Now members will be able to “stream select PC games from the library”, so it doesn’t look like this will be the full catalog. Either way, it’s a big deal for cloud gaming, allowing PC Game Pass subscribers to use Nvidia’s top game streaming service with RTX 4080 performance levels. In our own tests , we found GeForce Now’s RTX 4080 tier to far outperform Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming offering in performance and latency.
It also means Microsoft’s promised Microsoft Store support for GeForce Now goes beyond your purchases and extends to the PC Game Pass subscription. Nvidia has previously said that Microsoft Store support on GeForce Now will “become available in the coming months”, so we might not have to wait too 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 coming to GeForce Now. Microsoft reached a 10-year deal with Nvidia earlier this year to license Xbox PC games to GeForce Now as part of a broader effort to appease regulators over its proposed deal with Activision Blizzard. 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 rivals. Now Microsoft is offering its PC Game Pass subscription on a competing cloud gaming service, in a surprise move that could help it convince regulators of its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
