NVIDIA says withdrawal of Activision Blizzard from GeForce NOW was a 'misunderstanding'

A few days ago, Activision Blizzard opted to remove its entire gaming library from GeForce NOW. NVIDIA now says that the move was due to a ‘misunderstanding’.

Activision Blizzard agreed to participate in GeForce NOW’s beta test, which NVIDIA took to mean that the company would also participate in GeForce NOW’s trial period following its launch.

It turns out that this wasn’t the case at all and upon the service’s full launch, Activision Blizzard opted to pull its library from the game streaming service.

“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,” Nvidia said in a statement (via Bloomberg). “Recognizing 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 appears that, for now, those wanting to play Activision Blizzard games such as Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and Call of Duty using GeForce NOW will have to find an alternative. We’ll update if the situation changes.

Original story continues below:

Just over a week after NVIDIA GeForce NOW exited its beta phase, Activision Blizzard has opted to pull its entire library from the game streaming service.

The removal of all Activision Blizzard games from GeForce NOW means that players can no longer play games like World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Overwatch, and the entire Call of Duty lineup.

NVIDIA addressed the removal of the games from GeForce NOW, but didn’t provide a reason. Instead, the company states that it “[hopes] to work together with Activision Blizzard to re-enable these games and more in the future.”

You can read NVIDIA’s statement in its entirety below.

As we take GeForce NOW to the next step in its evolution, we’ve worked with publishers to onboard a robust catalog of your PC games.

This means continually adding new games, and on occasion, having to remove games – similar to other digital service providers.

Per their request, please be advised Activision Blizzard games will be removed from the service. While unfortunate, we hope to work together with Activision Blizzard to reenable these games and more in the future.

In addition to the hundreds of games currently supported, we have over 1,500 games that developers have asked to be on-boarded to the service. Look for weekly updates as to new games we are adding.

The way NVIDIA GeForce NOW works is by using the power of the cloud to allow you to play PC games on your PC, Mac, NVIDIA SHIELD, or Android phone. The catch is that you have to already own the games, unless you want to get in on the several free-to-play games NVIDIA also offers.

GeForce NOW also offers two tiers of subscription, with one going for free and one being paid. This means that those who are paying for a premium subscription can no longer play Activision Blizzard games such as Diablo III, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, and Spyro Reignited Trilogy through NVIDIA’s streaming service, even if they already own them.

This also means that the number of games with ray-tracing enabled has dropped down to just three. Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Metro Exodus, and Deliver Us the Moon will still offer ray-tracing, but Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will no longer be available due to its removal.