Hi everyone! This is a long one, so buckle up (disclaimer: all of this is my opinion, alleged etc., keep that in mind 
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Background information: GeForce Now is a cloud streaming service that allows players to access a gaming computer over the internet and basically stream the footage of your gameplay to your screen. Key point: You already have to own the games you want to play. Meaning: The publisher of the games gets all of the money they would normally get from you playing their games on your own PC. They don’t lose any money. Since the service went public, in February I believe, you (the player) had the option to pay 5 bucks a month for GeForce Now for unlimited gaming time compared with the one hour of gaming time. The same week the service went public, Activision/Blizzard pulled their catalogue from GeForce Now.
So what are my issues?
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Special quarantine point: A LOT of people are in quarantine and would love to play the games they love (and you know….paid for). As you can see from Geforce Now selling out their memberships there’s a huge demand for their service. So if you do not care about your players being able to play your games, at least think about it from a business standpoint and think about the money you lose (and no I’m not talking about taking money from Geforce Now here, I’m taking about the money you would make from ingame purchases).
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Pulling their games from GeForce Now prevents a lot of players (including me) from playing games they have already paid for. And some players paid for those games under the impression they would be able to play it on GeForce Now. Which is the only way they can play FPS games on their hardware for a lot of players.
And before you go “you shouldn’t have assumed that Blizzard would just allow you to play their games on GeForce Now”: You were able to play OW on GeForce Now for 3 years, while you had to pay nothing to use GeForce Now, so Blizzard wouldn’t have any money to “claim”. So concluding that you would be able to play a game on GeForce Now, when you were able to do so for three years, seems reasonable.
Addition to this point: I am also aware that you buy a license to play the game and don’t buy the actual game nowadays, I’m also aware about the EULA which specifically states that cloud streaming services have to be authorize. Which GFN was for the beta and it went perfectly. This also can’t be the problem then.
Additional additional point: The senior vice president of partnerships (whatever that means) of Ubisoft publicly stated that they will continue to support GeForce Now because, direct quote: “If someone has already bought one of our games on the PC, they should be able to play them wherever they like.” COULD. NOT. AGREE. MORE. UBISOFT. -
Should publishers be able to dictate what hardware we are allowed to use to play our games on? The way I see it the game runs on the hardware of GeForce Now and I stream it back to my computer. What’s the difference between that and running it on my PC and streaming it over to my screen via a cable? The fact that it’s not a hardware based but an internet based connection between a PC and my screen? Fine: Then what’s with all-of the players that stream their gameplay on twitch? or the overwatch league that is played on physical PCs somewhere in the world and streamed via YouTube to the screens of thousands of fans? The only real difference I see here is that the publisher wants these things to happen, because it makes them money. How far are we willing to let this go? Would we be fine with it if publishers suddenly said: Hey guys! From now on you are only allowed to play our games on “insert name of computer manufacturer here” PCs! I’d assume people wouldn’t be okay with that.
Blizzard can you give us any answers or informations on the following points:
- Do you have a licensing agreement with Google (Stadia)? You switched the Overwatch League over to YouTube (A google company) and you pulled your games from a cloud based streaming service that is the main competitor of Google Stadia. You actually make money from GeForce Now, there is no way you don’t know this. People with bad hardware bought your games (and with a very high likelihood would continue to do so) because they were able to play them on GeForce Now. And not only that, they don’t just make the one time purchase of buying the game(in the case of OW), they usually spend money in-game as well. All of which, you lose. So why would a company not want to make money from selling their games and from in game purchases? Doesn’t make any sense to me. EXCEPT you have an agreement with another cloud based gaming company that would not only give you the money from the above mentioned players for the one time purchase (which in the case of google Stadia is often times higher than the price of the same game bought directly from the publisher AND you’re not able to play it anywhere outside of Stadia) and the in game purchases, but would also give you the money of people who previously played on other streaming services and now would have to buy your game again (because again: you have to buy stadia games on stadia and can only play them on stadia). Sooo… you already moved your overwatch league exclusively to a google company and by doing the same thing with cloud based gaming you would presumably make even more money. As you probably already got from a lot of articles and YouTube videos: Players are not happy about that.
Additional points about Stadia: If you have read or watched any of the reviews of google stadia you should know that the reviews are bad. Like, really, really, really bad. Especially the ones that directly compared GFN to Stadia. GFN: You buy your games as your normally would and just play them using GFN (one app that you can easily download). Stadia: You have to use Chrome (first strike, because google’s data policy is horrendous in my opinion), you have to buy a controller (which obviously makes sense because why wouldn’t I buy a controller for games I want to play on my keyboard and with a mouse…sarcasm) and use the controller to play your games, you have to buy the games you want to play from the google stadia store (which often times cost more money than from the publisher), you are NOT able to ever play the games you bought anywhere else other than on stadia (AGAIN: on GFN you just buy your games as you always would and access them as you normally would). Why? Please explain to me how that makes sense from a consumer standpoint?
BUT here’s the thing: I LOVE OVERWATCH SO MUCH that I would go through all of this and get Stadia and play it on there BUT it is only available in 14 countries, mine not being one of them. Which is just great. Really exceptional business model and very inclusive. There are literally more nationalities in overwatch than countries you can use Stadia in. Enough said.
Another extra quarantine point: As you can see from Geforce Now selling out their memberships and literally no one caring about Google Stadia, maybe consider what your customers want?
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Do you really care about money this much? I would understand the above reasoning from a business standpoint, but if you in fact don’t already have an agreement with google Stadia in place I would be truly shocked about you as a company alienating your players because you want a cut of GeForce Now’s subscription fee. If you really want a part of GeForce Now’s earnings for letting us use their PCs to play OUR GAMES WE ALREADY PAID FOR, do you also contact all of the other gaming PC manufacturers out there and inform them that you want a percentage of their selling price as soon as one of the owners installs one of your games on their hardware? And please be aware that I specifically wrote “gaming PC manufacturers” here. I did this because I would assume you (=Blizzard) would argue that GeForce Now makes money because people want to play your games on their service, ergo you bring them costumers, ergo you want a cut of what they make. Well. I would assume 99% of people buy a gaming PC over a much cheaper “non-gaming” PC in order to…you know…play games. So they buy a gaming PC because they want to play your games, ergo you bring the gaming PC manufacturers costumers, ergo you should get a percentage of that right? Maybe I’m wrong but I’m fairly certain you don’t get a cut off the gaming PC manufacturers income.
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Do you care about your player base at all anymore? In a human way besides seeing us as money trees. When I take a look back at the last years I am not only worried that you as a company completely lost touch with your customers (Battle for Azeroth was not well received at all, you got booed at your own convention (filled with fans of your games) when you introduced the new Diablo, the whole hearthstone hong-kong debacle, you had to refund Warcraft), but I am worried about your ethics as well. When I first started playing WoW in 2006 and fell in love with your company, I truly felt you cared about your player base and wanted to deliver the best content you could, because you were passionate about it. Over the last few years, the feeling I got from most of your decisions is that you only care about money, which makes me sad. This opinion of mine is supported by interviews of ex-employees of yours who stated they left the company for the above stated reasons. But then Overwatch came around and I got that same feeling of people really loving what they do and want to provide us with great content (love you daddy Jeff). However, when I look at the move you (as a company, not the overwatch team) pulled with GeForce Now I feel that disappointment again. I would love to be wrong and get an answer or even an explanation to any of my points.
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Going back to the point from “my issues” and quoting the representative of Ubisoft: “If someone has already bought one of our games on the PC, they should be able to play them wherever they like.” I have no idea who makes more money, but Ubisoft and you (Activision/Blizz) are HUGE gaming companies. So why is it that Ubisoft is able to support their player base and you are not?
I am always happy to learn and grow. If you have a different opinion/view or more information on any of the points I made, I’d be glad to hear them
Also: Please take care of yourselfs and others out there, keep your distance to other people, avoid group gatherings (if you live in a country where you can still do that side eye Netherlands what are you doing side eye), cough into your elbow and wash your hands
