Nvidia GeForce Now Streaming Service Loses The Long Dark Game Over Lack of Agreement

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Nvidia GeForce Now's games list just got even shorter.

(Image credit: Hinterland Games)

Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service is making an attempt to shake up the gaming industry, but it isn't going so well. Over the last few weeks it has been dropping titles like flies, and today it suffered yet another loss. This time the game that gets pulled is The Long Dark, a game developed by the Hinterland Games.

The game's director, Raphael van Lierop, tweeted Sunday "Sorry to those who are disappointed you can no longer play #thelongdark on GeForce Now. Nvidia didn't ask for our permission to put the game on the platform so we asked them to remove it. Please take your complaints to them, not us. Devs should control where their games exist."

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This is the first time that a game is being pulled and that we're given a clear reason as to why. Thus far, we've only been able to assume that the removals as GeForce Now went out of beta last month were due to licensing issues or problems with the agreements between Nvidia and the developers. In this case,there was apparently no agreement.

Looking at matters long-term, it's clear that Nvidia needs to ensure that it clears up agreements with developers to ensure that games on its cloud service are there to stay. The appeal of GeForce Now is that users can buy games elsewhere that they wouldn't be able to run on their own PC, instead running them through GeForce Now. But at this point we'd be hesitant to buy a game solely for playing on GeForce Now if it can't guarantee the title will still be available there in a couple weeks.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

Topics
Gaming
Software
4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • theseconddavid
    Just another reminder that game developers don't think the purchase of a game entitles you to own it. Anyone who buys a copy of something should be able to run it on any platform available to run it. If it requires a server to run, the server software should be distributed to the owners of the software should the company ever stop providing them. That's property rights 101. I buy something, it is mine to do with as I see fit, as long as that isn't pirating copyrighted material and selling it or giving it away.
    Reply
  • digitalgriffin
    theseconddavid said:
    Just another reminder that game developers don't think the purchase of a game entitles you to own it. Anyone who buys a copy of something should be able to run it on any platform available to run it. If it requires a server to run, the server software should be distributed to the owners of the software should the company ever stop providing them. That's property rights 101. I buy something, it is mine to do with as I see fit, as long as that isn't pirating copyrighted material and selling it or giving it away.

    I'm not sure it's this at all. As a game developer, you might not want to put your game on a streaming platform that introduces lag, and compression artifacts. It might make your studio look bad, when in fact it's the streaming service's fault. Game studios test their games on stand alone platforms and servers THEY control. It might open then to support and quality issues they didn't have to deal with before, that are outside their control.
    Reply
  • theseconddavid
    If we were talking console only, you may have a point. However, there is almost no one running the exact same setup on PC games. If I can run crysis on a toaster, I should be able to with no developer concern on if it looks or plays like crap.
    Reply
  • gamergeek
    digitalgriffin said:
    I'm not sure it's this at all. As a game developer, you might not want to put your game on a streaming platform that introduces lag, and compression artifacts. It might make your studio look bad, when in fact it's the streaming service's fault. Game studios test their games on stand alone platforms and servers THEY control. It might open then to support and quality issues they didn't have to deal with before, that are outside their control.

    Do they also ban people from using their game if their PCs dont meet the minimum requirements?
    There are people out there that play games on piss poor PCs and deal with the horrible graphics and performance that comes with that. I don't know how they manage but they do. Under your purposed reasoning they should be banned from doing so.
    Reply