Following in the footsteps of Activision Blizzard and Bethesda, 2K Games is the latest game publisher to pull its games from Nvidia's new game streaming service GeForce Now. Epic Games pledges support.
Another one
In February 2020, Nvidia launched GeForce Now as a $5 per month game streaming service that links to existing storefronts such as Steam, Epic and Battle.net. GeForce now is available as an app for the Nvidia Shield box and other devices.
Shortly after launch Activision Blizzard (Overwatch, Call of Duty) and Bethesda (Fallout, The Elder Scrolls) both pulled their games from the service.
Now 2K Games is following in their footsteps.
- "Per publisher request, please be advised 2K Games titles will be removed from GeForce Now today. We are working with 2K Games to re-enable their games in the future," said Nvidia.
The latest development means that 2K Games, Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, Capcom, Electronic Arts, Konami, Remedy, Rockstar Games, and Square Enix have all chosen not to participate. This is obviously bad news for GeForce Now, which otherwise looked like a promising concept that lets you stream games that you have purchased digitally.
Epic Games pledges support
As multiple publishers have abandoned the project, game studio Epic has on the other hand pledged support for GeForce Now.
- "Epic is wholeheartedly supporting NVIDIA’s GeForce Now service with Fortnite and with Epic Games Store titles that choose to participate (including exclusives), and we’ll be improving the integration over time," said Tim Sweeney, Epic Games founder and CEO.
He added that it is the "most developer-friendly and publisher-friendly of the major streaming services, with zero tax on game revenue" and encouraged other companies "who want to move the game industry towards a healthier state for everyone" to support the initiative.
Together with Google Stadia, Nvidia's GeForce Now is part of a new wave of game streaming services. Sony has PlayStation Now and later this year Microsoft will launch xCloud.
The Epic founder believes that the situation is about to get worse.
- "Just waiting till later this year when Google is lobbying against Apple for blocking Stadia from iOS, while Google blocks GeForce Now, xCloud, and Fortnite from Google Play, and this whole rotten structure begins collapsing in on itself," he said.
- Source: Nvidia, Tim Sweeney
