Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service may have lost yet another publisher from its catalog of supported games, but it also gained a valuable backer.
Epic Games, the developer of massively popular Fortnite, pledged support to GeForce Now through a tweet by its CEO, Tim Sweeney.
Epic is wholeheartedly supporting NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW service with Fortnite and with Epic Games Store titles that choose to participate (including exclusives), and we’ll be improving the integration over time.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) March 7, 2020
Sweeney described GeForce Now, which launched last month after a beta period since 2015, as “the most developer-friendly and publisher-friendly of the major streaming services.” It appears that with his comments, Fortnite players may expect the battle royale shooter to be supported by the streaming service for the foreseeable future.
The pledge of support from Epic Games comes just after Nvidia revealed in a forum post that 2K Games is the latest publisher to remove its titles from the service.
The list of games that were taken down from GeForce Now at 2K Games’ request are as follows:
- BioShock Remastered
- BioShock 2 Remastered
- Bioshock Infinite
- Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced
- Borderlands 2
- Borderlands 3
- Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
- Mafia III
- NBA 2K Playgrounds 2
- NBA 2K17
- NBA 2K18
- NBA 2K19
- Sid Meier’s Civilization V
- Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
- The Darkness II
- The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA TOUR
- WWE 2K19
- WWE 2K20
- Warriors Orochi 4
- XCOM 2
2K Games joins Activision Blizzard, Bethesda
2K Games’ withdrawal from GeForce Now follows similar high-profile departures by Activision Blizzard and Bethesda, which both pulled out from the streaming service last month. Also gone from GeForce Now is Hinterland Studio’s The Long Dark. The survival game’s director, Raphael van Lierop, claimed that Nvidia never asked permission to put The Long Dark on its platform.
In the case of Activision Blizzard, the games were removed from GeForce Now due to a misunderstanding over the agreement about whether they would still be available on the service after the initial 90-day trial period. It is possible that the same issue happened between Nvidia and Bethesda, and it appears that the trend continues with 2K Games.
GeForce Now reached the milestone of 1 million players in February, with Nvidia also securing a deal for CD Projekt Red’s highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 to be supported on the service as soon as it launches on September 17. However, with publishers continuing to withdraw their games, it remains to be seen if GeForce Now will be able to sustain the momentum from its strong start.
