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[Spyxos]

Geforce Now really needs new games. However, the negotiations also seem to be coming to a very close ending.

 

[ComputerBlue]

Is the plan to just act like they've bought Activision? It might be the smartest move ever seen, they get the company, the games and keep their money?

Jeez.

Phil might be a loathsome salesman genius but he even he can’t bullshit his way into that one lol

 

[Chiggs]

MS handing out 10 year deals like it's going out of style.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Microsoft looking more and more likely to abandon hardware by the day.

MS has been launching games day one on PC for years. LOL

 

[FBeeEye]

You hear that? That's the sound of inevitability...

 

[SCB3]

I've never actually tried GeForce Now, maybe I should give it a look, wonder how well it plays with Steam Deck, Xbox Cloud is pretty decent imo

 

[OmegaSupreme]

MS has been launching games day one on PC for years. LOL

I'm aware. I've been PC gamepass since day one.

 

[DryvBy]

Banger after banger after banger.

MS making true to their promise of bringing games to more people.

*For a limited time

 

[onnextflix5]

lol ms is getting really desperate, cma will want far more then that.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

This acquisition keeps getting better and better!

this is going age like fine milk.

 

[FBeeEye]

Microsoft looking more and more likely to abandon hardware by the day.

Sony must be close behind then since they release their games on PC.

 

[envyzeal]

10 years is supposed to be a long time for the industry?

 

[DaGwaphics]

lol ms is getting really desperate, cma will want far more then that.

MS could probably care less about any of the regulatory boards at this point, they've moved on to solutions that cut the legs out from any objections in court. Using CoD to create a cloud gaming monopoly is just the latest checkbox ticked off their list.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

at this rate I wouldn't be surprised if OUYA gets a deal.

 

[Robb]

Phil checking off the list.

Wonder if there’ll be more.

 

[FoxMcChief]

this is going age like fine milk.

Just the way I likes it.

 

[VAVA Mk2]

Finally team green and team green joining together. MS should sold the gaming department to NVidia anyway, because Nvidia can't do no wrong

LOL except price gouge on graphics cards

 

[Mr Reasonable]

10 years is supposed to be a long time for the industry?

10 years ago you were playing on PS3

 

[Draugoth]

They are doing everything in their power to aprove the ABK deal.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

They are doing everything in their power to aprove the ABK deal.

I think they approve of it already.

 

[FoxMcChief]

They are doing everything in their power to aprove the ABK deal.

And gamers keep getting a better outcome.

 

[nani17]

showing just how good they are so they can finish off the Activision deal

 

[envyzeal]

10 years ago you were playing on PS3

Is that supposed to be a long time?

 

[Gamezone]

Nothing about Diablo IV on Steam ?

It's a given, as long as Microsoft own the IP.

 

[twilo99]

The deal is going through.

Not with government officials that want to be seen as.. doing their "job"

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Is that supposed to be a long time?

Yep

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Is the plan to just act like they've bought Activision? It might be the smartest move ever seen, they get the company, the games and keep their money?

Jeez.

Activision Blizzard's board and its shareholders have approved the sale of the entire company to Microsoft. Do you understand what that means? It means that, as far as post-merger commitments and business decisions are concerned, Microsoft calls the shots and will dictate what types of deals get made because that's how it works when a company agrees to let you buy them.

Microsoft can't dictate Activision's current business strategy, but they can post-merger. Every single arrangement being made is a post merger contract or commitment.

Are people going to continue playing clueless on this?

 

[GHG]

Yes, they link your accounts to grab a list of compatible titles in your account, but headless launchers from the different stores are absolutely running on those virtual machines. You can even shift+tab and pull up the Steam overlay in any steam game, so I'm not sure what you are on about with that. You also have full access to your friends lists, etc. as provided by the launchers of those games. Nvidia is not running their own service with these.

MS could choose to share this same list of compatible titles (including compatible GP sub titles if they chose) and Nvidia could launch the games the same way (via the Xbox launcher using direct links). There is no real difference here.

They don't give you free access to the launchers no, only because they could not control the software you launched which would be a legal nightmare for them. Using the headless approach they can limit things to just "approved" titles.

Nvidia does have their own service, the primary overlay is and will always be the nvidia one.

You also get access to a secondary overlay which always depends on where you own the game. So if you own the game on Steam you'll get the steam one, epic = epic overlay and if its via xbox then the Xbox overlay might be available.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

How come Phil sees Stadia and Luna as competition but not GeForce?

They do see GeForce as competition. That's why this is happening because Nvidia was openly challenging the merger with the argument that MS would monopolize cloud gaming in the future. So MS made this deal with Nvidia to show the CMA that they are serious about making this happen. Nvidia then said it was going to support the merger. Now that unions, Nvidia, Nintendo and Valve are out of the picture only Sony and Google remain as the only ones against the deal.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

Probably because Stadia and Luna are backed by Google and Amazon.

Amazon is not against the merger but Google is despite Stadia being dead. Problem is MS is supporting lawsuits against Google pushed by Epic so Epic and MS are at war with Google.

 

[Holammer]

Nothing about Diablo IV on Steam ?

Perhaps they'll wait until the deal is sealed before MS present their Activision-Blizzard PC strategy going forward.
I think it'll involve two shots to the head for the Blizzard app.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

GeForce: you can have literally every game we make
Sony: you can have Call of Duty for a limited time

Yeah I wonder why they are pushing back.

Sony blocked Nvidia from allowing players that own them to play their games on GeForce now. Funny how that works.

 

[GametimeUK]

I am not the biggest fan of acquisitions, but it is what it is. However, I really want to see this one go through just to see how it pans out. Looks decent so far.

 

[H . R . 2]

I don't think this is cause for celebration

imagine the lengths MS has to go to, to maintain visual and content parity between all these platforms (all future CODs will soon be on Nintendo consoles, etc.)
now imagine what burden it will put on the developers and the industry to help MS achieve this parity AND offer an optimised experience across all the other platforms
[as if series S was not controversial enough)

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

GeForce: you can have literally every game we make
Sony: you can have Call of Duty for a limited time

Yeah I wonder why they are pushing back.

Valve and Nintendo also got the same 10 year deal Sony got, they seem pretty happy about it.

 

[SomeGit]

To use geforce now you just link your accounts (steam, epic, etc), you don't install or use any launchers through the service. From there you can play the games you've purchased on those 3rd party storefronts via the service.

So not sure what you're talking about.

You don’t need to link the accounts, you can just launch any game on GeForce Now and then there you login to the service, like Steam, epic, origin, etc on the virtual instance itself.

If they offer MS/ABK through the Xbox app then you could just login with your GP account and play, assuming there isn’t any artificial block by MS.

This is why you can play, say, EA games with EA play already.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

10 years is supposed to be a long time for the industry?

For a tech based industry it's massive. Most acquisitions don't make promises anywhere near as long.

 

[ANDS]

Sony looking like a joke right now.

How so? These actions are exactly because of the roadblocks SONY has thrown up surrounding the MS/AB deal. None of this would be happening otherwise.

Is the plan to just act like they've bought Activision? It might be the smartest move ever seen, they get the company, the games and keep their money?

There's nothing stopping them from doing so now, other than being forced to sell off assets later on depending on the moves the FTC makes.

 

[Ozriel]

GeForce Now isn’t a separate competing platform - it’s PC.
If anything nobody should have to strike any deal with GeForce, because they’re just allowing PC players to play the games they already own.

There's a reason why Nvidia requires permission to put games up on GeForce Now.

Same way Microsoft can't put everyone's games on XCloud and go "its just an Xbox in the cloud, allowing people to play the games they already own"

Microsoft looking more and more likely to abandon hardware by the day.

People said the same thing when they started bringing their games to PC with Gears 4.

 

[Kvally]

NVIDA Press release for their support for the merger and signing the deal:

https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/microsoft-and-nvidia-announce-expansive-new-gaming-deal

Microsoft and NVIDIA announce expansive new gaming deal​

---

Partnership will bring blockbuster lineup of Xbox games, including Minecraft and Activision titles like Call of Duty, to NVIDIA GeForce NOW cloud gaming service
REDMOND, Wash. and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, Microsoft and NVIDIA announced the companies have agreed to a 10-year partnership to bring Xbox PC games to the NVIDIA® GeForce NOW™ cloud gaming service, which has more than 25 million members in over 100 countries.

The agreement will enable gamers to stream Xbox PC titles from GeForce NOW to PCs, macOS, Chromebooks, smartphones and other devices. It will also enable Activision Blizzard PC titles, such as Call of Duty, to be streamed on GeForce NOW after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision closes.

"Xbox remains committed to giving people more choice and finding ways to expand how people play," said Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer. "This partnership will help grow NVIDIA's catalog of titles to include games like Call of Duty, while giving developers more ways to offer streaming games. We are excited to offer gamers more ways to play the games they love."

"Combining the incredibly rich catalog of Xbox first party games with GeForce NOW's high-performance streaming capabilities will propel cloud gaming into a mainstream offering that appeals to gamers at all levels of interest and experience," said Jeff Fisher, senior vice president for GeForce at NVIDIA. "Through this partnership, more of the world's most popular titles will now be available from the cloud with just a click, playable by millions more gamers."

The partnership delivers increased choice to gamers and resolves NVIDIA's concerns with Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. NVIDIA therefore is offering its full support for regulatory approval of the acquisition.
Microsoft and NVIDIA will begin work immediately to integrate Xbox PC games into GeForce NOW, so that GeForce NOW members can stream PC games they buy in the Windows Store, including third-party partner titles where the publisher has granted streaming rights to NVIDIA. Xbox PC games currently available in third-party stores like Steam or Epic Games Store will also be able to be streamed through GeForce NOW.

Visit the GeForce NOW website for more information on the service and follow along every GFN Thursday for the latest news, including release dates for upcoming Microsoft game titles coming to the GeForce NOW service.
The agreement was announced today at a Microsoft press conference in Brussels, Belgium. Microsoft also shared today that it finalized a 10-year agreement to bring the latest version of Call of Duty to the Nintendo platform following the merger with Activision.

 

[LordBlodgett]

I don't think this is cause for celebration

imagine the lengths MS has to go to, to maintain visual and content parity between all these platforms (all future CODs will soon be on Nintendo consoles, etc.)
now imagine what burden it will put on the developers and the industry to help MS achieve this parity AND offer an optimised experience across all the other platforms
[as if series S was not controversial enough)

Dude, GeForce Now is basically a PC running in the cloud. This is a PC port, plain and simple.

 

[Ozriel]

showing just how good they are so they can finish off the Activision deal

They're signing binding contracts...

I don't think this is cause for celebration

imagine the lengths MS has to go to, to maintain visual and content parity between all these platforms (all future CODs will soon be on Nintendo consoles, etc.)
now imagine what burden it will put on the developers and the industry to help MS achieve this parity AND offer an optimised experience across all the other platforms
[as if series S was not controversial enough)

Nowhere in the discussion was 'visual parity' mentioned.

All that's getting added here is ONE platform. Most certainly Nintendo's next console. GeForce Now is pretty much a high end Windows PC in the cloud.

Devs will be happy with more revenue. Shouldn't be that much effort to translate a Series S version to a next gen Nintendo console.

 

[Kvally]

Nowhere in the discussion was 'visual parity' mentioned.

I am sure that MS will make sure that games look best on their own console vs. the competing consoles they release on however.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Activision Blizzard's board and its shareholders have approved the sale of the entire company to Microsoft. Do you understand what that means? It means that, as far as post-merger commitments and business decisions are concerned, Microsoft calls the shots and will dictate what types of deals get made because that's how it works when a company agrees to let you buy them.

Microsoft can't dictate Activision's current business strategy, but they can post-merger. Every single arrangement being made is a post merger contract or commitment.

Are people going to continue playing clueless on this?

It's possible to make jokes even about really serious things like video games. Sorry it wasn't clear enough.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

How come Phil sees Stadia and Luna as competition but not GeForce?

Because GeForce wasn't trying to be number 1 in the market and horde everything themselves, they are just one of the many cloud options out there and is 3rd in marketshare.

Whereas Amazon Luna and Stadia were trying to kill traditional gaming, control the cloud with a walled garden, and wanted to control the software.

 

[Fahdis]

GeForce Now isn’t a separate competing platform - it’s PC.
If anything nobody should have to strike any deal with GeForce, because they’re just allowing PC players to play the games they already own.

Will ask you this question when you need to upgrade your PC down the line vs. A $100 PC VM every 6 months with free upgrade cards every year.

 

[H . R . 2]

Dude, GeForce Now is basically a PC running in the cloud. This is a PC port, plain and simple.

wasn't talking about GeForce. but Nintendo
also optimisation has nothing to do with GFNOW being a cloud service. a cloud game will still require optimisation and more development time/resources

 

[baphomet]

I don't think this is cause for celebration

imagine the lengths MS has to go to, to maintain visual and content parity between all these platforms (all future CODs will soon be on Nintendo consoles, etc.)
now imagine what burden it will put on the developers and the industry to help MS achieve this parity AND offer an optimised experience across all the other platforms
[as if series S was not controversial enough)

All they would do is stream them from xcloud.

 

[twilo99]

MS handing out 10 year deals like it's going out of style.

Its all BS.. CoD won't even be a thing in 10 years, so I don't understand why they don't give Sony a "forever" deal and call it