NVIDIA GeForce NOW Powers On With New Game Additions Following Key Losses
A growing number of game publishers are having a hard time wrapping their heads around GeForce NOW, though NVIDIA remains undeterred in fleshing out its cloud game streaming service with more title additions on a regular basis. You win some and you lose some, in other words. Fortunately, it appears NVIDIA is amassing more wins than losses, as it pertains to publisher support.
Unfortunately, the losses are still significant, and piling up. NVIDIA posted an update on the situation and confirmed that several more publishers are pulling their games out, including Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Xbox Game Studios, Codemasters, and Klei Entertainment. Games from those publishers will no longer be accessible on GeForce NOW starting Friday, April 24.
The challenge for NVIDIA is convincing publishers that its game streaming service is a win for everyone involved. That's proving to be no easy task. The latest losses join a growing list that includes Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda, 2K Games, and others.
On the flip side, GeForce NOW continues to expand its catalog of games, despite the partial exodus of publishers. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney had previously said he "wholeheartedly" supports the service, and Ubisoft is on board as well. With regards to the latter, NVIDIA just added the complete Assassin's Creed and Far Cry series to GeForce NOW, and promises more Ubisoft games arriving "in the coming weeks."
"Ubisoft fully supports NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW with complete access to our PC games from the Ubisoft Store or any supported game stores," said Chris Early, senior vice president partnerships at Ubisoft. "We believe it’s a leading-edge service that gives current and new PC players a high-end experience with more choice in how and where they play their favorite games."
NVIDIA also pointed out in a blog post that 30 of the top 40 most played games on Steam are available on GeForce NOW at this very moment. Some of those include Destiny 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Hearts of Iron IV, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, Rust, Warframe, and Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem.
"We remain committed to bringing the best of PC games to GeForce NOW. There are already a ton of great games from amazing developers. Over time, more developers who share our vision to expand PC gaming for everyone will join us," NVIDIA said.
GeForce NOW is a great concept and, technically speaking, is well executed in the early going—put simply, it's better than Google Stadia in form and function. It also has the potential to be a game changer. The only hurdle—and it's a big one—is getting publishers to play ball. From the outside looking in, it appears publishers want a piece of the financial pie, even though they already benefit from players buying their games in the first place.
We're sure NVIDIA is working hard behind the scenes to sort this out, though the effort hardly matters for potential subscribers if it doesn't bear fruit. Either the games are available or they aren't. Hopefully NVIDIA continues to add more titles than it loses.
