2K Games has become the latest big name publisher to desert the Nvidia GeForce Now games streaming platform. Popular titles from 2K, which will be missing from Nvidia's games streaming service for the foreseeable future, include the following franchises; BioShock, Borderlands, and Civilisation.
Last month we saw some other big name publishers pull their wares from Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service after it came out of beta and paid subscriptions opened up (though a free version remained usable). GeForce Now launched to the wider public with this paid option in the first week of Feb. Companies like Capcom, EA, Konami, Remedy, Rockstar, and Square Enix all withheld their properties from as the service launched. However it was only later decision changes that raised awareness of what was happening. Within a week of GeForce Now launching proper Activision Blizzard removed access to its games. Not long later Bethesda decided to do the same. Bucking the trend, the good eggs at CD Projekt Red announced that Cyberpunk 2077 would be available on GeForce Now as soon as it became available (and this game will also be an Xbox Smart Delivery title - meaning if you buy it on Xbox One you will get the upgraded Xbox Series X version for free when it is released).
Over the weekend Nvidia updated customers that "Per publisher request, please be advised 2K Games titles will be removed from GeForce Now today." The official poster added, with optimism, as is now customary, "We are working with 2K Games to re-enable their games in the future".
The news of the latest big publisher to abandon GeForce Now inspired Tim Sweeney to comment on the situation, judging from the timing and subject matter of his Tweets. On Saturday the Epic Games founder and CEO offered his full support to GeForce Now, with the promise of improved integration on the way.
Sweeney said that GeForce Now had many virtues for users, "It's the most developer-friendly and publisher-friendly of the major streaming services, with zero tax on game revenue," he said. He added that "everyone should be supporting this kind of service," and if this was the case the game industry would be in a healthier state.
Rounding off his 'Tweet storm', Sweeney took the opportunity to snipe at the likes of the iOS and Google Play for taking substantial slices of developer revenue. Last but not least the Epic CEO shared his particular ire for Google which is said to be "lobbying against Apple for blocking Stadia from iOS, while Google blocks GeForce Now, xCloud, and Fortnite from Google Play".
