Following Controversy, The Long Dark Is Back On NVIDIA GeForce Now

After they requested The Long Dark be pulled from NVIDIA GeForce Now back in March to a less than positive reception, Hinterland Studio has today confirmed that the game will be returning to the service.

Raphael van Lierop, Founder & CEO of Hinterland, explained the re-introduction, noting that NVIDIA will now allow developers to opt-in to GeForce Now instead of automatically being included:

“I believe that creators must be the custodians of their own content, and that developers should be able to determine for themselves which platforms their games are experienced on. In fact, I strongly believe that the continued vibrancy of the independent games industry depends on us being masters of our own destiny.

“Back in March I decided to remove The Long Dark from NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW game streaming platform, as I disagreed with our game being incorporated into the service without our consent. We discussed our position with NVIDIA, which they respected. This week, NVIDIA announced they are shifting to an opt-in program for getting games onto GeForce NOW. This means developers now fully control whether or not their games appear on the platform. I’m thrilled to see NVIDIA move to this model as it’s best for everyone — for players, for the platform, and for the developers who create the games you love.

“Accessibility is important to us. GeForce NOW is a great service that offers players with low-spec or incompatible hardware the chance to play the games that might otherwise be out of reach, and we’re happy to announce that we’re bringing The Long Dark back to GeForce NOW, effective immediately.

“I applaud NVIDIA for embracing this opt-in approach, and for their support of independent creators like Hinterland. I also support any developers who choose, for their own reasons, to withhold their games from any platform, and I hope you will respect their decisions to do so as well. Developer choice is at the heart of a strong independent games industry.”

NVIDIA GeForce Now is a service that allows players to stream the games they already own elsewhere, such as Shield TV or Android. Hinterland’s qualm was that they didn’t agree to The Long Dark’s inclusion in the service, with many other developers following suit. It seems that the ability to opt-in has swayed some minds.

There are 26 new games joining the service this week, which include plenty of Ubisoft titles such as Far Cry and For Honor. It seems that this might just be the beginnings of GeForce Now as a serious thing. That doesn’t mean we need twenty other equivalents, gaming industry.

The Long Dark, meanwhile, continues to roll in with the updates, it recently getting the Fearless Navigator free update. It’s one of our favourite survival games, so we recommend you give it a shot and then immediately regret it after starving to death.