NVIDIA GeForce NOW Streaming Adds New Games But Loses More Publishers

Although it has been in limited testing for quite a while now, NVIDIA's GeForce NOW game streaming only opened its doors to the wider public only last February. What should have been a great moment for the service turned into a controversial one as major game publishers suddenly pulled their games out just as it launched. NVIDIA has since then promoted the support of other game developers but that's not stopping others from leaving as well.

Activision was the first to yank its games from GeForce NOW barely a week after the game streaming service launched to the wider public, followed by Bethesda and then 2K Games. Their reason has largely been about miscommunication and possible agreement violations. In a nutshell, they reportedly didn't agree yet to NVIDIA going public with the service.

NVIDIA has been doing some PR damage control since then, promoting the developers and publishers that have stayed on board and voiced support for the platform. Epic Games, one of the most vocal voices in the industry today, is one of those. Today's announcement puts the spotlight on Ubisoft whose Assassin's Creed and Far Cry series are joining Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege on GeForce NOW.

NVIDIA, however, is also announcing that some publishers will be pulling out their own titles on Friday, April 24. These include games from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Codemasters, Klei Entertainment, and, unsurprisingly, Xbox Game Studios. NVIDIA says it is hoping these will return someday but the growing competition between game streaming services makes that a bit uncertain for now.

Still, the company is boasting that it already has most of the most-played games on Steam, including online games like Warframe and Destiny 2. The latter is particularly interesting as it is also Google Stadia's promotional title for new subscribers. Steam itself might be on the verge of launching its own take on the game streaming business and could also affect GeForce NOW's access to those in the future.