Games: Microsoft wants to take ‘Call of Duty’ to Nvidia – 02/22/2023 – Tech

Microsoft has reached a 10-year deal to bring “Call of Duty” and other Activision games to Nvidia’s gaming platform if it can complete its $69 billion acquisition of the producer.

Microsoft chairman Brad Smith told reporters on Tuesday that he is now more optimistic about completing the Activision acquisition after the Nvidia deal and a similar deal with Nintendo.

Phil Eisler, vice president and general manager of Nvidia’s GeForce Now segment, said titles like “Call of Duty” won’t be available on the service unless Microsoft acquires Activision, but that the company’s other titles like “Minecraft” , are covered under the ten-year license agreement.

Eisler said that Nvidia is not paying Microsoft for access to the titles, which is the same agreement the company has with other companies like Epic Games, maker of “Fortnite”. Instead, the 25 million users will need to pay Microsoft for access to games on the platform.

Nvidia said it now supports Microsoft’s purchase of Activision, but that the deal could still be difficult to get past competition regulators.

Smith said he hoped rival Sony would consider making the same kind of deal with Nvidia as Microsoft did.

Sony leads opposition to Microsoft’s purchase of Activision. The Japanese company said last year that the deal is “bad for the competition, bad for the games industry and bad for the players themselves”.

In addition to Sony and Nvidia, other companies, including Google, have expressed concern to US officials about the deal, according to media reports.

Microsoft promised to keep “Call of Duty” on Sony’s PlayStation platform. The tech giant said the purchase of the developer behind titles such as “Overwatch” and “Candy Crush” will boost its growth in mobile, PC and cloud-based games, as well as consoles, helping it compete with companies like Tencent and Sony.