Geforce NOW - EULA clash

Community General Discussion
1

Hi there,

as many my friends and fellow inhabitants of Azeroth, I believe that we are upmost disappointed with withdrawal of Blizzard games from GeForce NOW (“GFN”). I began to play BlizzGames almost sooner than I was able to walk (ok, maybe a little later) and actually this is the first time in my life, that I feel betrayed by Blizz…

At the launch of GFN I was able to return to the World of Azeroth even on my reeeeally old laptop and I immediately renew my subscription only to find out, that you canceled your support of GFN.

At first, I thought - “Ok, maybe there is something I dont know… technical issues or whatever…” and I waited for any reasonable explanation. And than I found this explanation: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/geforce-now/151289/16

Correct me if I am wrong, but Blizzard cooperated with GFN in its BETA phase and let GFN to offer their games to their customers even after official launch of the platform. Such thing can not happen without cooperation from Blizzard (I believe that GF NOW cant (and wont) add any game without cooperation of developer).

In EULA you say:

Cloud Computing: Use the Platform, including a Game, in connection with any unauthorized third-party “cloud computing” services, “cloud gaming” services, or any software or service designed to enable the unauthorized streaming or transmission of Game content from a third-party server to any device.

So… there are two options:

a) If Blizz actively supported GFN then GFN is NOT unauthorized third party “cloud computing” service = that means that by using GFN we are not in breach of EULA

or

b) Blizzard actively and knowingly cooperate with GF NOW and let their customers to use such platform but in the same time forbids them to use such platform and subsequently punishes them for using platform with which they cooperate.

In first case, the users did not infringed the EULA and termination of their access to game was unlawful.

If the second case is right, then Blizz is in bad faith and i am convinced that by such behavior (at least in my country - and in the EU as whole) the Blizzard is in breach in conflict with consumer law.

I adore Blizzard… I love your games and I always loved them. I never complained and I enjoyed any content in any game you provide us.

But this? Just does not make sense. I was thrilled that I can return to the world of Azeroth. And you shut that hope without any just reason.

So… Why?

2

Well I asked them in like December why wow returned to GFN and there is still no answer. Early on in beta wow was on gfn byt was took down by blizz intervention. Some players that used that got banned. The recently before launch they readded blizz games - and with this takedown it seems it were only nvidia actions to add blizzard games whereas blizzard did not agreed to it.

3

Ok, reaction for my ticket:

Hi there, Thank you for contacting us about the availability of Activision Blizzard games on GeForce Now. Please note that we have no further information to share about this at the moment and if you have any questions or concerns about the GeForce Now service you’ll need to contact Nvidia directly.
Thanks, take care and have a great day!

You have no further information? To have no further information, it is necessary to have some initial information to begin with…

Also - I have no concerns about GFN service. I have concerns about battle.net services.

4

This is what I highly doubt. Nowhere on the Blizzard side we find anything indicating that they actively and officially worked together. But feel free to prove me wrong.

That is a bit the opposite worlds. You don’t have concerns about Battle.net services directly, you have concerns about the availability of Battle.net services via Geforce Now. That is something Nvidia has to answer to you (Why they offered BNet services at the official launch and removed them again 4 days later).

5

Blizzard actively banned people for using GFN one year ago so barring public announcement I doubt anything has changed. More likely Blizzard and Activision games will be going to Stadia much like OWL etc. moved to Youtube from Twitch.

If you want to be angry I think Nvidia is better target if they mistaenkly allowed Blizzard and Activision games to be played risking the users accounts at the same time.

6

Blizzard did not cooperate with GFN, GFN added Blizzards products to GFN without getting permission from Blizzard first. So Blizzard probably sent in a team of lawyers, and Blizzards products were then removed from GFN.

People were banned by Blizzard because the EULA explicitly disallows the use of cloud computing. Those people do have a valid argument, but not with Blizzard, with GFN. Those people agreed to, and subsequently broke Blizzards EULA. Obviously because GFN misled them to believing that it was allowable by virtue of existing. But thats on them and on GFN, not on Blizzard.

So I agree with Grelier. Be angry at nVidia, not Blizzard.

7

Personally I think regardless of whether blizzard knew or did not know about GFN using their games, I think its time for blizz to start to consider the potential of cloud platforms. We have stadia, GFN, Shadow and Microsofts project XCloud. This trend is going to continue and become more popular as it is a much cheaper alternative to get into gaming. As someone who travels a lot for work I am excited for the possibilities of not having to carry about my large and heavy gaming laptop just to enjoy some gaming when away from home.

I understand Blizzards concerns with cloud platforms around our account security and account sharing, but there are ways to mitigate this risk, so I for one, hope this has sparked some conversations at blizz headquaters and they do start talking with some of the service about making their games available in a way that also mitigate the concerns of blizzard. As at the end of the day this helps blizzard get their games to more people.

8

Thank you for your opinions, you made valid points. But still there are some things that bothers me. Feel free to comment, I am interested in your opinions.

Ad Maglola and Trovlak

This is what I highly doubt. Nowhere on the Blizzard side we find anything indicating that they actively and officially worked together. But feel free to prove me wrong.

That is what I am not really sure with. Thanks to my job I am quiet familiar with licensing and digital distribution rules as well as with risk procedures in such big companies such as Blizzard, GeForce etc. I am not saying that it is impossible, but I would be really surprised if GeForce would jeopardize launch of new revolutionary service, such as cloud gaming (considering how badly the Stadia ended) by implementing Blizzard games without Blizzard permission. As you know, in these days of review bombing, Reddit discussions and social media, PR coverage of new services is alpha-omega for its success and risk of such bad PR would be much higher, than benefit of adding Blizzard games to the service without Blizzard’s permission. Even if I would accept the possibility that Geforce provided Blizzard games without its permission, their games were available in the service for a while (and even removed/added repeatedly) - and it is nearly impossible to Blizzard not to know, that they are present at the service (as they banned several users for using it). Therefore they had to know that their games are on the service and they removed them AFTER A WEEK from official launch of the service without any prior notice - after a considerable number of players bought new games and renewed subscriptions for WoW.

As for the anger pointed towards nVidia or Blizzard - this is not about anger, this is about understanding the situation. I still love both companies. Geforce for their service/HW and Blizz for their games. But if I had to point fingers towards somebody, it would be Blizz and that is because of their knowledge combined with their late and inappropriate actions without any justification. To understand my point of view - imagine this hypothetical situation:

  1. As a developer I develop mobile application, that runs on iOS and Android and put such application on BOTH app stores. The application costs 10 Euro.
  2. In my EULA after instalation I explicitly mention, that my application is forbidden on Apple devices (and i still provide it for Apple users).
  3. I let bunch of users to buy the app and let them use it for a week.
  4. Then I remove my app from the store with a notice, that they infringed my EULA by downloading the app on Apple device (although I put the app on iOS Appstore).
  5. I keep the money with notice that they are still allowed to use the app on the Android (but nobody will change their phone because of one app).

Not only that such behavior is morally arguable, but at least at my country, such behavior would be against customer law. And as user, I would definitely blame the developer, not Apple as it only provided me an access to the app.

Do you see my point there?

So… I am not saying that Blizz did what they did without reason. I just want to know the real reason…

9

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