Game streaming service GeForce Now by Nvidia is in hot water after hosting a game without the developer’s permission. This isn’t the first time that Nvidia is dealing with a loss of games from GeForce Now. After the service came out of beta, Activision Blizzard’s games were pulled from the service, followed shortly by most of Bethesda’s games. Neither publisher gave a reason for the departure. However, there is not a lack of games on GeForce Now. The service still includes many hit games like Fortnite, and Nvidia says there are 1,500 games yet to come to the service.
GeForce Now was projected to succeed due to the number of available games. Its main competitor, the Google Stadia, has a severe lack of available titles due to a lack of incentives for indie devs to join the service. Nvidia’s streaming model allows users to access any of the games from its existing library, from any developers, no matter how large or small the studio. Unfortunately, this ultimately means that there isn’t an incentive for game studios to keep their games on the service.
According to IGN, the game in question is The Long Dark. The director of the game, Raphael van Lierop, took to Twitter to inform fans of the game’s departure from the service. Van Lierop tweeted that The Long Dark would no longer be available on GeForce Now because of the lack of communication between Nvidia and the game’s developer, Hinterland Studio. He explained that Nvidia didn’t get the studio’s approval and that their publishing deal is with Valve, not Nvidia. Van Lierop went on to say that game developers should be able to choose where their games are published and played.
Because players already own the games they are playing on GeForce Now, Nvidia can’t use the service to sell the games, so studios don’t make a profit by keeping their games available. This could be the reason that Activision Blizzard and Bethesda pulled their games, and it’s likely that more will follow, especially if Nvidia continues its trend of essentially stealing games to use on GeForce Now. Nvidia will need to rethink their game streaming model if they want GeForce Now to continue to be a competitor against the Google Stadia.
As game streaming evolves, it’s possible even more competitors will join the market. In the case of TV and movie streaming, it took several years before the market became as saturated as it is now. While it’s unlikely to happen on that level with gaming, Nvidia’s GeForce Now still needs to do what it can to make itself stand out. Unfortunately, this news makes it stand out for all the wrong reasons.
Source: IGN
