Microsoft Corp. announced Tuesday that it has reached a 10-year gaming agreement with NVIDIA Corp. If Microsoft’s deal to buy Activision Blizzard is approved, the company will bring all Activision Blizzard games to the NVIDIA gaming platform. Before that, NVIDIA had opposed Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft
Microsoft President Brad Smith disclosed the agreement with Nvidia after a meeting with European Union officials in Brussels on Tuesday. In a joint statement, the two companies said the partnership “addresses Nvidia’s concerns about the merger” and “as a result, Nvidia will fully support regulatory approval of the acquisition.
Now, NVIDIA is on Microsoft’s side. In January, it was reported that NVIDIA and Google had expressed concerns to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Microsoft President Smith said in a press release that Microsoft’s Xbox games would be available on NVIDIA’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service, effective immediately. He also said it will bring all Activision Blizzard games to GeForce Now if the Activision Blizzard deal closes.
Microsoft is currently trying to salvage the troubled deal, which faces domestic and international regulatory hurdles. While Europe reviews the deal, the FTC has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the deal from closing. With this deal, Microsoft hopes to prove that the gaming industry remains competitive even after it completes its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
