NVIDIA’s cloud gaming streaming service GeForce Now can’t seem to take a break from all the recent fiasco of “misunderstandings” causing Activision Blizzard to pull out all titles from the platform, as Bethesda has also joined the bandwagon without any explanations from either party as of writing.
Announcing the detrimental news today, almost all Bethesda titles will get yanked out of the service and only 1 gets to stay, which is Wolfenstein: Youngblood. Other series such as Fallout, Dishonored, The Evil Within, Skyrim, and Doom 2016 are gone.
It wasn’t supposed to go down like this
GeForce Now came out of beta at the beginning of February. Users get to stream games which they already owned on commercially available digital distribution platforms like Steam or Epic Games. Everyone gets a free 1-hour trial run and a “Founders” membership will be available at $4.99 (approx. RM21) monthly bundled with a 90-day free pass that activates first.
While GeForce Now pits against Google Stadia with an advantage in software by not requiring an additional purchase of the same game, NVIDIA is pretty much still new in content copyrights and streaming rights. Failing to come within equal understandings and judgment in terms and conditions is a big no-no and can have severe consequences. Has Activision Blizzard decided to take it to the court, it could spell big trouble.
For better or worse, it is still a blind future for players who hope that the dispute can be settled and the titles get to return to the platform. But this incident should set a pretty good example for game streaming services in the future to deal with terms and conditions precisely.
