In March last year, we announced a 10-year partnership with Boosteroid to bring Xbox PC games to more players around the world. In June, we brought the first batch of Xbox PC games to Boosteroid and today, we're taking another step in our partnership. We're bringing more high-quality, immersive PC games by giving players another option to stream select games purchased through Microsoft Store on Windows, or available with a Game Pass membership. Our partnership continues to accelerate access to players by letting them choose how and where they play their games.

Starting today, you can play Deathloop, Dishonored, Dishonored 2, Dishonored: Death of The Outsider, Gears 5, Gears Tactics, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Pentiment. You can also enjoy cross-play and cross-save features with your Xbox console and Windows PC for these games. We'll continue to add more hits and fan favorites from our extensive catalog of PC games over time. To get started, you'll need to gain access to the game through the Microsoft Store—either via a PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, or by a direct purchase of the game through the Microsoft Store—long with a Boosteroid membership.

The cloud is full of treats this GFN Thursday with Cities: Skylines II now streaming, leading 15 newly supported games this week. The game's publisher, Paradox Interactive, is offering GeForce NOW one-month Priority memberships for those who pick up the game first, so make sure to grab one before they're gone. Among the newly supported additions to the GeForce NOW library are more games from the PC Game Pass catalog, including Ghostwire Tokyo, State of Decay and the Dishonored series. Members can also look forward to Alan Wake 2 - streaming soon.

Cloud City
Members can build the metropolis of their dreams this week in Cities: Skylines II, the sequel to Paradox Interactive's award-winning city sim. Raise a city from the ground up and transform it into a thriving urban landscape. Get creative to build on an unprecedented scale while managing a deep simulation and a living economy. The game's AI and intricate economics mean every choice ripples through the fabric of a player's city, so they'll have to stay sharp - strategizing, solving problems and reacting to challenges. Build sky-high and sprawl across the map like never before. New dynamic map features affect how the city expands amid rising pollution, changing weather and seasonal challenges. Paradox is offering one-month GeForce NOW Priority memberships to the first 100,000 people who purchase the game, so budding city planners can optimize their gameplay across nearly any device. Visit Cities Skylines II for more info.

Microsoft today dropped a giant bomb on the balance of game development: the company announced the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, and all its related IP. The purchase, which is expected to close for a tidy $7.5 billion, will carry over all ZeniMax Media subsidiaries. This includes Bethesda (The Elder Scrolls, Fallout), id Software (DOOM), Arkane Studios (Prey, Dishonored, upcoming Deathloop), MachineGames (Wolfenstein), among others.

The deal is the costliest acquisition for Microsoft (to date) in its push to increase the number of in-house development studios (up to 23 from 15 prior to this deal). Microsoft has announced that as part of the deal, games published by ZeniMax Media and subsidiaries (and in the future, by Microsoft) will be available on its Xbox Games Pass subscription service for Xbox and PC gaming. Microsoft is acquiring some of the most iconic gaming franchises ever with this deal, including all in-development IP. It's a huge boon for the company; it remains to be seen exactly how will this evolve over the years. But one thing is for certain: Microsoft isn't slowing down on its doubling down on game development.

I don't know about you, but I've found the Dishonored universe to be one of the most interesting ones to be explored in gaming in recent years. Now, publisher Bethesda has made the dishonored franchise available via CD Projekt Red's GOG digital storefront, which means DRM-free versions of games you get to keep forever, as well as digital goodies. The original Dishonored and DLC, alongside Dishonored 2 and its expansion Death of the Outsider (too late for a spoiler alert, uh?) are now available with discounts up to 75% off.

Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood are also available through GOG as of now, so if you have a Nazi-killing craving lurking somewhere in your conscious or subconscious mind, GOG has that itch covered for you with hefty discounts as well (and these are extensive to the entirety of Bethesda's published catalogue on GOG, including those more retro pieces of gaming such as Quake and Doom). Go now, and be happy.

Bethesda has confirmed that they will be having their own presentation even before the actual E3 (Entertainments and Electronics Expo) kicks-off. Bethesda's presentation, which will be live on June 9th, will, according to Bethesda, offer an "in-depth look at DOOM Eternal plus much, much more." The company also teases that they want to "be together" with the community this year - likely because of one particular interstellar journey that dwells in such a team - perhaps in the form of Starfield?

When Bethesda took the stage at E3 this year and announced Wolfenstein: Youngblood, many were dismayed and feared that the lower-than-expected sales for Wolfenstein II, combined with the deep discounts early in the product cycle, may have changed the timeline in more ways than one. Specifically, there was doubt on whether another numbered entry was coming to the main Wolfenstein story which had received a reboot of sorts beginning with the 2014 hit Wolfenstein: The New Order. In an interview with GameCentral, Pete Hines (VP, PR and Marketing for Bethesda) confirmed that Youngblood is to be treated as a standalone title similar to what we saw with Wolfenstein: The Old Blood in 2015, and that MachineGames is absolutely going to develop Wolfenstein III.

Specifically, Pete Hines said and I quote, "Absolutely we're making a Wolfenstein III. They [MachineGames] said on stage that they're taking a break from the larger story to do this thing. But we all have to see how that ends." This was part of a long discussion, that is well worth the read, with insights on the revival of single-player AAA games, Bethesda's continual commitment to story-driven gameplay, and more. As part of said discussion, Pete Hines also helped provide some relief to fans of Arkane Studios' Dishonored series which, as with the recent Wolfenstein series, enjoyed great success with the first entry but then tapered down subsequently when it comes to sales of Dishonored 2 and its standalone DLC. Arkane Studios had recently said that the series is "resting", and in response to this Pete said that he "wouldn't read too much into that" and that Arkane having two studios meant that the situation was similar to how Bethesda Studios themselves went from the Fallout franchise to Starfield before returning to The Elder Scrolls series. Sounds like good news to Dishonored fans, and we will be sure to inform our readers of any updates accordingly.