Nvidia GeForce Now: Microsoft and Warner Bros head to the exit

by Mark Tyson on 21 April 2020, 10:11

Tags: NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

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Nvidia has been earnestly trying to stop the tide of developers who are removing their titles from its GeForce Now streaming service, since the official launch out of beta and the beginning of paid subscriptions. After a series of big-name pullouts in Feb and March, Nvidia sought to steady the ship by promising to add more GeForce Now games every week. At the time, Nvidia highlighted its strong relationship with Epic Games and CD Projekt Red.

On Monday Nvidia published a blog post about the industry support for GeForce Now. In the post, headlined Full Stream Ahead: PC community rallies behind GeForce Now, Nvidia talked about the support of >100 game makers including big names like Ubisoft, Epic, Bungie and Bandai Namco. Alongside the confirmed and committed support from those companies, Nvidia noted some were "still evaluating their cloud strategy"…

Thanks to its work with friendly and pliant publishers and developers, Nvidia claims that "30 of the top 40 most-played games on Steam already stream on GeForce Now. And we're working to bring over 1,500 more games to the service." However, squirreled away in the blog post under the subheading 'The GeForce Now Game Library Evolves', Nvidia admits that some huge gaming companies are just about to pull out.

"Games from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Xbox Game Studios, Codemasters, and Klei Entertainment will be removed from the service on Friday, April 24," wrote Nvidia on its blog, adding the now familiar whimper of "We hope they'll return in the future."

As a reminder, below I have bullet pointed all the gaming companies that have pulled out of GeForce Now since it went prime-time in Feb (if I've missed any majors please let me know):

  • Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
  • Xbox Game Studios
  • Codemasters
  • Klei Entertainment
  • Activision Blizzard
  • Capcom
  • Electronic Arts
  • Konami
  • Rockstar
  • Square Enix
  • Bethesda
  • 2K Games


HEXUS Forums :: 12 Comments

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So…A better list to show is actually who out of the large name publishers (not indie/small time) are actually left.

Looking at the list there is going to be very little left that I would want to play on GeForce Now
I can ‘kind of’ understand microsoft pulling out, they're going to have their own competing product so makes sense for them to have their own ‘exclusives’.

The rest leaving just screams of wanting more money by requiring players to re-buy the games again on each streaming platform.
Nvidia has sent out an email to GeForce Now Founders members announcing that it is delaying the initial billing date until June 2020.

“As you can imagine, we’re experiencing a substantial increase in the number of GeForce NOW players and their amount of playtime.

While the service continues to grow, we have decided to take this opportunity to show our early Founders members our appreciation, and will not begin billing until June 2020.

Your first charge date has been extended. Please check account.nvidia.com for more information.

Stay safe and happy gaming.

The GeForce NOW Team”
Whilst Warner Bros don't really have anywhere near enough games to launch their own platform, I'm sure this will be something they are mindful of.

The gaming sector is still very young and has a very, very promising future.

I'd imagine Warner Bros secretly wishing they could do with gaming what they've recently done with movies / tv.

Microsoft obviously have their own things and whilst they are opening up a little, I feel the Nvidia model would be almost direct competition to what Microsoft are close to releasing (XCloud).

There will be many more companies pull out over the next year, I'm unsure if Nvidia can do anything to stop them. They'd need a lot of users paying decent rates to be able to pass funds on, in order to appease devs, but I don't think they can do enough.
Yoyoyo69
Whilst Warner Bros don't really have anywhere near enough games to launch their own platform, I'm sure this will be something they are mindful of.

The gaming sector is still very young and has a very, very promising future.

I'd imagine Warner Bros secretly wishing they could do with gaming what they've recently done with movies / tv.

Microsoft obviously have their own things and whilst they are opening up a little, I feel the Nvidia model would be almost direct competition to what Microsoft are close to releasing (XCloud).

There will be many more companies pull out over the next year, I'm unsure if Nvidia can do anything to stop them. They'd need a lot of users paying decent rates to be able to pass funds on, in order to appease devs, but I don't think they can do enough.

Or they could start buying rights to games or buying out some game studios. Take the Apple approach