Nvidia’s GeForce NOW service represents a decidedly different take on game streaming than the newer Google Stadia. Instead of having its users pay for games, GeForce NOW allows users to stream games they already own on other services, a practice that makes it quite appealing for those that don’t have a particularly robust gaming system. Unfortunately, not every developer is thrilled with the setup, prompting The Long Dark developer Hinterland Studio to ask that Nvidia remove its game from GeForce NOW.

Hinterland Studio director Raphael van Lierop recently took to Twitter to explain why  The Long Dark is no longer available to play through Nvidia’s GeForce NOW. According to Lierop, Nvidia never asked for permission to put the game on its platform, which in turn prompted the studio to request that the company remove the title from its service.

Sorry to those who are disappointed you can no longer play #thelongdark on GeForce Now. Nvidia didn’t ask for our permission to put the game on the platform so we asked them to remove it. Please take your complaints to them, not us. Devs should control where their games exist.

— Raphael van Lierop (@RaphLife) March 1, 2020

The thing is, it isn’t as cut and dry as “no permission means no game.” GeForce NOW users must first own a game – like The Long Dark – in order to play it through Nvidia’s streaming service, so it’s not like the developer hasn’t gotten paid beforehand. GeForce NOW isn’t actually a ‘platform’ so to speak as gamers aren’t purchasing games through it, merely utilizing Nvidia’s tools to access their content, and as such many folks have responded to Lierop’s Tweet asking why the developer is policing where they choose to play their games.

Setting aside the possibility that Hinterland Studio doesn’t recognize that Nvidia’s GeForce NOW is charging users to use its tools, and not to access other developer’s games, it’s possible that the developer requested the removal of The Long Dark as it plans on diving into an exclusive streaming deal with a platform like Google Stadia. In the meantime, though, there are a lot of unhappy folks that purchased The Long Dark with the express intent to play it through GeForce NOW, and now they are unable to do so.

So, thoughts on the situation? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers for all the latest gaming and entertainment news! Don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!