Developers Have To Opt-In To NVIDIA GeForce Now After Big Name Games Pulled

NVIDIA’s game streaming service, GeForce Now, has been racked with problems and criticism from day one. And, it looks like it’s going to keep getting worse with their latest announcement.

On Wednesday, they announced a new policy that means developers must opt-in to be featured on the platform. This comes after a long list of big-name publishers pulled their games from the service.

“Response has been strong with over 200 publishers committing to streaming on the service,” said Phil Eisler, Nvidia’s GeForce Now vice president in a recent blog post. “Going forward, only the games that are opted in will be available on the service, providing confidence in the GeForce Now game library. Yet some publishers are still figuring out their cloud strategies. Those that haven’t opted in as of May 31 will be removed.”

This shift should help to address the issues around licensing disputes that have been arising since the platform’s launch. Considering the service has lost, or will soon be losing, games from Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, Capcom, Crytek, Konami, Xbox Game Studios, Rockstar, Sega, Square Enix, Take-Two / 2K Games, and Warner Bros – this was probably an essential move.

Unlike other streaming services, like Google Stadia, where you have to purchase a separate license to play the game via the cloud, GeForce Now gives users access to their existing Steam and Epic Game Store libraries. This has caused even more backlash for the service with discussions around digital ownership. All in all, it’s been one heck of a rocky road for Nvidia’s service.

Despite all this, they are still maintaining over 2000 games on the cloud gaming service with titles from Bandai Namco, Bungie, CCP Games, Electronic Arts, Epic, Riot, Ubisoft, and Valve, as well as a range of indie titles to bulk it out.