Bethesda has removed its games from Nvidia GeForce Now

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Bye bye Bethesda

(Image credit: Nvidia)

In a fresh blow for Nvidia's fledgling GeForce Now cloud streaming platform, Bethesda has removed its games from the service.

In a post on the Nvidia forums, an official representative listed exactly which games are being withdrawn and it seems to be all of them but one: Wolfenstein Youngblood. The full list of removed titles is as follows:

  • Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
  • Wolfenstein: The New Order
  • Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
  • The Evil Within 2
  • Rage 2
  • Quake Champions
  • Prey
  • Fallout: New Vegas
  • Fallout 76
  • Fallout 3
  • Everspace 
  • Doom
  • Dishonoured
  • Dishonoured 2
  • Dishonoured: Death of the Outsider
  • Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr
  • Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Teething problems

The exact reason for Bethesda's withdrawal is unclear but it's not a great look for GeForce Now, especially so soon after Activision Blizzard removed its games from the service just over a week ago.

Activision's withdrawal turned out to be due to a "misunderstanding" on Nvidia's part, with Nvidia stating “Activision Blizzard has been a fantastic partner during the GeForce Now beta, which we took to include the free trial period for our founders' membership. Recognising the misunderstanding, we removed their games from our service, with hope we can work with them to re-enable these, and more, in the future.”

It's not been confirmed if Bethesda's decision has been made for similar reasons.

As GeForce Now has launched for everyone after many years in development, it now has two tiers available to users. One tier is free while the other, called the Founder's Edition, costs £4.99 / €5.49 / $4.99 per month following a 90 day free trial period. It seems to be the transition from a free beta-mode service to a paid one that's causing issues with publishers.

Though Nvidia hasn't addressed the removal of Bethesda's titles specifically just yet, it has already warned users in another blog post that they might see some games leave GeForce Now as it shifted from free to paid, though it expected instances of this to be "few and far between".

"This trial is an important transitional period where gamers, developers and publishers can try the premium experience with minimal commitment while we continue to refine our offering," Nvidia explained.

"As we approach a paid service, some publishers may choose to remove games before the trial period ends. Ultimately, they maintain control over their content and decide whether the game you purchase includes streaming on GeForce NOW. Meanwhile, others will bring games back as they continue to realize GeForce NOW’s value."

Regardless of the warning, many users aren't exactly pleased with the news that so many big name titles are suddenly unavailable to them, especially those who have purchased these games specifically to use on the GeForce Now platform.

Nvidia, for its part, is requesting that its users be "patient" as it works through the teething period, stating that it aims to make "as many games available as possible". 

It's not all bad news for GeForce Now, though. As we noted in our review, at the moment Nvidia has an accessibility advantage over its competition in that it already has a free tier available to players without the need for any upfront cost. In addition, although games are being pulled, GeForce Now is still getting some big wins like the recently announced support for Cyberpunk 2077 when it launches in September. 

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Emma Boyle
Emma Boyle

Emma Boyle is TechRadar’s ex-Gaming Editor, and is now a content developer and freelance journalist. She has written for magazines and websites including T3, Stuff and The Independent. Emma currently works as a Content Developer in Edinburgh.