Nvidia revealed that its GeForce Now has broken through the milestone of 1 million players, but its future remains cloudy after Bethesda Softworks titles were removed from the video game streaming service.
In an official blog post, Nvidia revealed that more than 1 million players have either signed up for a free plan or purchased the Founders membership in GeForce Now. This is in stark contrast to the numbers for Google Stadia, though there are significant differences in what the two services offer.
Unlike with Google Stadia, GeForce Now subscribers do not buy games from Nvidia. They bring their own collection from other digital storefronts and play them on a powerful gaming PC accessed through the cloud. A wide collection of games are currently supported by GeForce Now, and according to Nvidia, an additional 1,500 titles will soon be added to the list.
Nvidia also revealed that Cyberpunk 2077, the highly anticipated title from CD Projekt Red that will launch this year, will be supported on GeForce Now on its September 17 release date.
However, just as Nvidia announced GeForce Now’s player milestone and its deal for Cyberpunk 2077, it was revealed that Bethesda games are being pulled from the service.
The affected titles include the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series, in addition to id Software franchises such as Doom. However, Wolfenstein: Youngblood will remain on GeForce Now.
The removal of Bethesda games from GeForce Now follows the withdrawal of Activision Blizzard games last week. The list of titles affected by the sudden move included 10 Call of Duty games, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Overwatch, and Hearthstone.
Nvidia clarified that the Activision Blizzard games were removed from GeForce Now due to a misunderstanding over the agreement whether the titles will be available beyond the initial 90-day trial period after the service’s launch. There was no explanation about the removal of the Bethesda games, but it is possible that the same “misunderstanding” occurred. It is unclear, however, why Wolfenstein: Youngblood is staying on the service if that is the case.
Nvidia touched upon the subject in its blog post, saying that some publishers may choose to take down their games from GeForce Now with the end of the trial period. However, the company added that as the transition period of the service nears completion, the removal of titles “should be few and far between.”
