An attempt to make sense of the GeForce Now leak

A recent “leak” that occurred on Monday It seemed to indicate that many unannounced titles and anticipated sequels were on the way and were coming to PC as well.

It also featured PC ports word for previously console-exclusive titles and more. As first seen in Reddit, software developer Ighor July conducted a data mine of Nvidia’s GeForce Now database and in doing so discovered lists of many unannounced games, sequels, ports, and more.

An image pulled from the GeForce Now data mine, Image Credit: Ighor July

What the players say

It didn’t take long for this leak to take off. The original post on Reddit has almost 2000 comments. The main comment is “Not bloodborne? It must be legitimate”, and it comes through KingBroly restorer. It’s a fun twist on the desire many have to see Bloodborne hit PC and there are plenty of other similar comments. However, many of the commenters are taking this leak as 100% true. There are also some, like howmadstha renderer, who point out that titles like Bioshock 2022 seem fake and take away some of the credibility that this data mine found real games.

The most common conclusion from commenters on that original Reddit post is that if this turns out to be huge, it could be one of the biggest leaks in gaming history, but chances are high that this isn’t what it sounds like. On Twitter, things move between “THIS IS NOT A DRILL [INSERT GAME] CONFIRMED LEAKS “ and “uh, who knows, these could just be placeholders.” There are also those who take this opportunity to make a good meme or two of the situation.

The NVIDIA employee who probably wrote your wish list in the GeForce Now rn list placeholder: pic.twitter.com/neyFwnCHTd

– Miss Darkness (@misstenebraealt) September 13, 2021

To be fair, the leak seemed pretty credible at first glance. It wasn’t a shoddy screenshot of a game being played on a monitor or a so-called list of things to come, it was a list of game lists made within Nvidia’s GeForce Now database. GeForce Now is Nvidia’s game streaming service not very different Google Stadia or Amazon Moon. Surely the leak must be legitimate if it comes from such a massive, prominent, and most importantly, credible company, right?

Nvidia’s answer to the data mine

On the surface, it seemed like that, but we now know that this is not necessarily the case. Nvidia responded the next day, on September 14, that the list of games extracted from data were listed “used for internal monitoring and testing only”, adding that some titles included are “speculative” and do not constitute “confirmation or announcement of any play”.

Nvidia said in a statement to IGN that it took immediate action to remove access to the internal list and that “no compilations of confidential games or personal information were exposed.” So that’s it, right? Well, on the gaming landscape, it doesn’t take much for a leak, rumor, or data mine find to take off, and this week’s Nvidia data mined lists are no different.

Why the listings are not all they seem

However, there could be more to this. Sure, there are some listings in the data mine that obviously read as “no way”, looking at you Bioshock 2022, which apparently alludes to the new Bioshock game announced in late 2019 as coming from 2K’s new Cloud Chamber studio. There’s always the chance that Bioshock 4, or whatever it’s called, will come out in 2022, but that seems extremely unlikely. Just a couple of months ago, they were hire a writer for an open world environment.

Let’s put some pieces of the puzzle together: 2K created a new studio in 2019 called Cloud Chamber to create the next Bioshock game, which was announced at the time as now in development. That game is reportedly an open world and it’s still hiring writers as well. Considering that Bioshock’s bread and butter is often his writing, it would seem like a story for Bioshock 4 isn’t even set in stone yet. You can see why a new Bioshock game that is reportedly an open world and still hiring writers for a new studio announced in 2019 doesn’t seem likely for 2022, right?

Maybe it’s a placeholder, or maybe it’s a spin-off or a remastering. A spin-off seems unlikely considering that 2K announced Cloud Chambers as essentially the Bioshock study. All three Bioshock games were technically remastered with Bioshock Collection 2016 also from Blind Squirrel Games (a studio known for its remastering). However, Nvidia’s data mine mentions a “Bioshock RTX Remaster” (along with Mirror’s Edge RTX and Batman: Arkham Knight RTX remasters as well).

Maybe that’s what “Bioshock 2022” is supposed to be on Nvidia’s listings, but that also seems unlikely because “Bioshock 2022” and “Bioshock RTX Remaster” are separate listings.

Make sense of what is probably not real

There are plenty of other titles in the data mine that seem more like guesswork to Bioshock 2022 than actual titles that we can expect to see soon. “Kingdom Hearts IV” is another title in the data mine that reeks of conjecture. Kingdom Hearts 3, the last numbered title in the series, was first announced in 2013. It wasn’t released until 2019. A fourth sequel also doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon, given the franchise’s track record. There are derivative products that will be obtained first, after all.

Other titles that we consider a guess include Titanfall 3 (which might even be an illusion on behalf of Nvidia because Respawn said last year that no new Titanfall games in development), Metro Next, which appears to be a reference to a possible sequel to the Metro series, Crysis 4, likely added to the list by Nvidia due to the recent remastering announcement of the Crysis trilogyand Gears 6.

Make sense of what is probably real

Elsewhere in the data mine, there are games that we already know are happening, so a listing on Nvidia GeForce Now for internal use makes sense. The titles of the data mine that we will classify into “games we already know are coming” include the remasters of GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas (supposedly come together in a single remastering of the trilogy), Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, which PlayStation announced that it will come to PS5 and PC in its latest showcase, Payday 3, which was announced years agoand Resident Evil 4 Remake, which is reportedly in the works, Among others.

Then there are the titles whose listing on Nvidia GeForce Now is what we’ll call questionable. For instance, Dragon’s Dogma 2 revealed via massive Capcom leak which happened in 2020. Nvidia likely added that title to its list as a result, rather than actual knowledge that the public is currently unaware of.

Another title that is questionable is Final Fantasy 7 Remake, a recent Epic Games Store backend data mine revealed that the PC store will add this game to their offerings.

That has yet to be confirmed, but that same backend data mine revealed a potential Alan Wake Remaster and which has since been confirmed. That confirmation makes a PC version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake seem much more likely and there is a chance that Nvidia is already aware of said version. However, Nvidia could have also created a placeholder after the Epic Games Store data mine.

The PlayStation effect

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this entire Nvidia GeForce Now leak is the mention of God of War (2018), Returnal, and Demon’s Souls for PC. Neither of those games have been announced for PC, but it would not be surprising if such an announcement occurred. This is because Sony has been slowly but steadily bringing its previously exclusive PlayStation titles to the PC.

Horizon Zero Dawn was added to PC last year and Days Gone added to PC this year. We know Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: Lost Legacy coming to PC next year and in addition to all this, PlayStation recently announced that it had bought Nixxes, a studio that specializes in PC ports.

Put all of this together and God of War, Returnal, and Demon’s Souls coming to PC doesn’t seem so unlikely. To add fuel to this data mine fire, the leak says there is no mention of Insomniac’s Spider-Man or Bloodborne.

If Nvidia was just guessing, it seems strange not to include Spider-Man and Bloodborne, right? Which makes Nvidia think that God of War, Returnal, and Demon’s Souls would be coming to PC, but that Spider-Man and Bloodborne wouldn’t be joining them. Purely speculating, perhaps Nvidia knows that the three aforementioned titles are, in fact, making their way to PC.

Make sense of it all

Speculation, leaks, and mined information aside, this all adds up to a murky conclusion: Nvidia might know a few things that are currently not public, and some of these games, whether it’s ports, sequels, or a new IP, might. be real. It’s equally likely that Nvidia is guessing based on what you’ve seen and heard, just like this piece speculates about information-based things in nature as well.

The reality of the situation is that we will probably never know. These listings can be a great look at unannounced games and ports that weren’t yet meant to be seen by the public. They can also be speculative guesswork and placeholders. Literally, only time will tell.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide creator for IGN. You can follow it on Twitter @LeBlancWes.