Nvidia’s streaming service, GeForce Now, got some positive buzz when it finally came out of beta last week after years of testing — especially compared to last fall’s lackluster launch of Google Stadia. But if its library keeps hemorrhaging games, it will likely have a tough time getting people to sign up for subscriptions.
Without any warning, Nvidia announced in a forum post on Tuesday afternoon that Activision Blizzard was yanking all of its games off of GeForce Now. The list — which amounts to 20 titles — includes 10 different Call of Duty games from 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare through 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, along with other Activision-published games such as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and beloved Blizzard titles like Hearthstone and Overwatch.
Maintaining a streaming service “means continually adding new games, and on occasion, having to remove games — similar to other digital service providers,” said Nvidia. “Per their request, please be advised Activision Blizzard games will be removed from the service. While unfortunate, we hope to work together with Activision Blizzard to reenable these games and more in the future.”
GeForce Now isn’t a perfect analog of other digital subscriptions, however. For one thing, while platforms like Netflix regularly rotate content in and out of their libraries, they give customers a heads-up about what’s coming and going in the near future. In this case, the Activision Blizzard games left GeForce Now the same day that Nvidia announced their departure from the service.
It’s unclear why the games disappeared now, one week after GeForce Now officially launched, especially since multiple Activision Blizzard titles were playable during the service’s beta. Their departure from GeForce Now may have something to do with the exclusive streaming agreement that Activision Blizzard signed with Google last month, under which the publisher’s esports competitions will be streamed exclusively on YouTube and its games will rely on Google Cloud as the “preferred provider” for their network infrastructure. Is it possible that Activision Blizzard removed its games from GeForce Now because it wants to bring them to Stadia in the future? We’ve asked Nvidia and Activision Blizzard for comment, and will update this article with any information we receive.
via polygon.com
