Wait, Did Epic Games Just Become Cloud Streaming’s Last Hope?
As bizarre as it sounds, what cloud gaming needs is for more publishers to behave exactly like Time Sweeney and company. | Source: ilikeyellow/Shutterstock.com
- GeForce Now has suffered from multiple developers and publishers pulling their games off the service.
- Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney has been outspoken in his support for the platform.
- We need more companies like Epic Games if game streaming is ever going to exist in a way that benefits consumers.
It would be an understatement to say that Epic Games is not the most popular company in the gaming industry. They’re not as reviled as EA – not that surpassing EA is a huge achievement.
But for all its reputational scars, Epic Games quietly does a lot of things right. They pay developers beefy royalties. And they’ve remained staunch supporters of GeForce Now even after other companies have begun to abandon Nvidia’s cloud gaming service.
As bizarre as it sounds, what cloud gaming needs most is for more publishers to behave exactly like Time Sweeney and company.
GeForce Now Needs Companies Like Epic Games
Streaming has long been marketed as the future of gaming. Usually, this narrative is sold by the companies launching their own services, but even skeptics have to admit it has massive potential.
But potential alone is not enough. Do game streaming wrong, and you end up with Google Stadia.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a company that delivers better on that potential than Nvidia. GeForce Now promises to make gaming ridiculously affordable and convenient.
But only if publishers get on board (and stay there).
Epic Games is one of the few major companies supporting Nvidia’s consumer-friendly version of game streaming.
What Epic provides – even more than its game library – is some much-needed help in the public relations department.
We Can’t Afford to Let Game Streaming Die Here
Whether you’ve enjoyed services like GeForce Now or Project xCloud, they certainly deserve a place in the industry. Consumers shouldn’t need to purchase expensive hardware to play modern games.
That won’t just benefit gamers. It could also increase the industry’s customer base. That’s why it’s so baffling that companies like Activision, Bethesda, and 2K are already yanking their games off GeForce Now.
Maybe they actually do have a reasonable defense for abandoning Nvidia. But it’s never a good look when you’re being compared unfavorably to Epic Games.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.
