Nvidia's game streaming service, GeForce Now, is moving to a new library opt-in system.

Nvidia's dream of an open gaming PC in the sky is apparently complete. From now on, publishers and developers will be able to opt-in and have their video games delivered from one of Nvidia's data centers.

This means that some video games will leave the GeForce Now platform, at least for the time being. The reason for this, Nvidia said in a blog post, is that "some publishers have not yet identified their cloud strategies. These changes will take effect on May 31.

A full list of games that will no longer be available after that date can be found here. Among those on the "to be eliminated" list, I noted the following: Kerbal Space Program, Celeste, Donut County, Football Manager '18/19, Magic the Gathering: Arena, Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire, Total War: Three Kingdoms, and Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami.

This is a troubling sign for cloud gaming services. Call me naive or blind to the details of the EULA, but I don't see what difference there is between the gaming PC under my desk and the one I rent from Nvidia: Steam, Origin, Epic Games Store, GOG, etc. It is. [This is the difference between Nvidia GeForce Now and services like Google Stadia: Stadia has a store and requires studios to develop games specifically for this service, whereas GeForce Now more or less guarantees compatible and capable hardware, which is a promise. The machine you receive (for free or for a small fee) is conceptually the same as any other gaming PC and maintains full-range access to your digital library.

It shouldn't matter much whether you play video games you've already purchased on a rented server or on your own PC. Nor does anyone seem to care about the other 11 streaming services that offer the same thing as GeForce Now.

Anyway, that's my two cents.