What do you do if you’re a gamer without a powerful gaming PC or a Steam Deck, but you have a good internet connection? You play in the cloud. The most prominent option here is probably Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud, which is integrated into the Xbox Game Pass. However, this is limited to the games available in the Game Pass.

The most open alternative is likely Shadow Cloud Gaming. Here, you get a real PC in the cloud, complete with a dedicated graphics card. The downsides are the high price and the fact that you’re responsible for maintenance, updates, and settings yourself. And the middle ground? GeForce Now from Nvidia. Nvidia allows you to play games from most launchers (and some others) without having to worry about configurations, updates, etc. The price is also a bit lower than Shadow’s, and in my opinion, the technology is a bit more mature.

To do this, Nvidia relies on cooperation with game publishers, unlike its other competitor, Boosteroid. Boosteroid simply adds games, but the quality is also significantly worse. As we know, the greed of publishers is limitless. And their logic is often incomprehensible. Some publishers prohibit their games from being offered on GeForce Now, at least until Nvidia pays them for it. Sure, it’s just a PC in the cloud, and I’ve never heard of Alienware paying a publisher for their games to run on its PCs, but they don’t care.

The result? Due to the lack of a mobile gaming device, I can’t play all the games I’d like to play on the go. Currently, there are three games I’d love to play: Red Dead Redemption 2, Ghost of Tsushima, and Elden Ring. At home, I tend to play multiplayer games, but especially when I’m not at home, which for me is almost every week for work, such games would be ideal. And all three are not available on GeForce Now because the publishers don’t want them to be. Red Dead Redemption 2, in particular, requires a lot of time, but the Western genre is just as popular with me as cyberpunk, and even ahead of science fiction and fantasy. It’s a shame; I actually have the time to play, but the publisher won’t let me.

I can’t understand this behavior either. The publisher incurs no costs by having their games included in GeForce Now. On the contrary, I’m convinced that they are losing revenue because of it. At least Ghost of Tsushima and Elden Ring are not in my Steam library yet, and they won’t be landing there anytime soon. On the other hand, I should see this as an opportunity to work through my pile of shame. There are still some good games in there that I’ve been wanting to play for ages, right Geralt, V, and Commander Shepard?