Nvidia's GeForce Now did not have a grand official launch, and it has only gotten more shaky since the program exited its beta phase. After clearing the news on why the service lost all Activision Blizzard games from the platform, Nvidia has now revealed that Bethesda Softworks is also pulling its games from the cloud game streaming service.
Bethesda games include some of popular titles like The Elder Scrolls, Doom, and Fallout. However, Wolfenstien: Youngblood is going to stay on the platform due to some mysterious reasons.
Nvidia lost access to games by Activision Blizzard thanks to a licensing dispute. When in the beta phase, Nvidia GeForce Now had access to these titles, but it did not have full permission to continue offering these games once the service became a commercial product. Since Nvidia started charging $5 for the program, which was previously a free product, Activision Blizzard had to pull out from the collaboration.
Even during the beta phase, Nvidia and Activision Blizzard had some disagreements regarding the structure of GeForce Now, which allows players to buy games from different platforms like Steam and use them with the service. This is one of the biggest differences between GeForce Now and Google Stadia.
However, it is still unclear if this is the same reasons for why Bethesda Softworks opted to pull its games from GeForce Now. That said, the one Wolfenstein title seems to indicate toward a contract that Nvidia and Bethesda might have.
Here's what Nvidia had to say about these issues: “This trial is an important transitional period where gamers, developers and publishers can try the premium experience with minimal commitment while we continue to refine our offering,” the company wrote. “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.” Nvidia said it expects these game removals to be “few and far between.”
However, it's not the end of GeForce Now. The cloud game streaming service came out of its beta phase and launched its free tier, gaining an edge over its competitor Google Stadia. Just yesterday, the company announced that GeForce Now will be getting Cyberpunk 2077 on the launch day, along with RTX features.
