Nvidia says that over 1 million users have signed up to its new game streaming service GeForce Now. However, the road ahead looks bumpy as Activision Blizzard and Bethesda have pulled their games.

Gains and losses
Earlier this month, Nvidia launched its $5/month GeForce Now 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. 

The company has announced that "over 1 million new gamers have taken to the cloud by signing up for a free plan or upgrading to the Founders membership" since launch. It is not clear how many users are on the free plan but it nevertheless suggests that there is strong interest in a more flexible game streaming service.

Unfortunately, it would seem that Nvidia has jumped the gun and failed to get its partners' consent. Shortly after launch, Activision Blizzard (Overwatch, Call of Duty) said that its games would be removed from GeForce Now. And late last week, Bethesda (Fallout, The Elder Scrolls) followed by saying that all games, except for Wolfenstein Youngblood (for Nvidia Founders members), will be removed.



This is obviously very bad news for Nvidia and its game streaming service that initially looked like a strong contender and an exciting way to bring PC games to more TV users.

- "As we approach a paid service, some publishers may choose to remove games before the trial period ends. Ultimately, they maintain control over their content and decide whether the game you purchase includes streaming on GeForce Now," the company said in response.

GeForce Now is also missing games from Capcom, EA, Konami, Rockstar and Square Enix, and other studios.

On the other hand Nvidia says that it has "an additional 1,500 games in our onboarding queue, from publishers that share a vision of expanding PC gaming to more people". It also said that the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 game will be available on GeForce Now on launch day.

As we are entering the next phase of console gaming, game streaming continues to be a hot but also controversial subject. Similarly, the launch of Google Stadia was plagued by issues, limitations and broken promises.

- Source: Nvidia (2, 3)