GeForce Now loses major titles as Bethesda removes games

Earlier this month GeForce Now exited beta testing and was heralded as the cheaper and more performant option when compared to Google Stadia. One of the most significant selling points was the size of the game library. Stadia is restricted to a couple of dozen titles to choose from, while GeForce Now allows subscribers to access games that they have already purchased via services such as Steam or the Epic Store (approx. 400 titles).

Now just under two weeks after Activision Blizzard removed their games from the service, Bethesda has had 18 of their games removed, leaving Wolfenstein: Young Blood as the only one remaining. This is undoubtedly a blow against GeForce Now with many of the withdrawn products covering Bethesda’s most popular franchises.

Neither Nvidia or Bethesda have commented on the exact reasons for the removal, but with GeForce Now only recently leaving beta we suspect it has something to do with licencing, and whether there is any payment from Nvidia to publishers. Perhaps the problem lies with the service’s ability to give users access to games they have purchased elsewhere, while publishers might want a way to monetise another software sale.

Whether the problem lies with Nvidia or Bethesda, this will surely annoy subscribers who purchased these games solely to use on the service but lack the dedicated gaming hardware to play without it. There were some interesting viewpoints from our commenters on a previous article in regards to using games you own or specifically buying them to use with a streaming service.

All things considered, this still leaves GeForce Now in a stronger position that Stadia is currently in.

Full list of games removed:

• Dishonored
• Dishonored 2
• Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
• Doom
• Everspace
• Fallout 3
• Fallout 76
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Prey
• Quake Champions
• Rage 2 (Bethesda.net / Steam)
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
• The Evil Within 2
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
• Wolfenstein: The New Order
• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood