Nvidia Could Have the ‘MoviePass Effect’ on Video Games
It’s hard to charge too much money for something consumers can already get for free
Nvidia’s game streaming service, GeForce Now, has been in beta for longer than similar offerings from Microsoft, Sony, or Google have existed. But as of last week, it’s finally live. GeForce Now’s main appeal is that you can play the games you already own from existing game stores like Steam or Epic. Renting the platform is free, or $5 a month for a premium version that includes support for Nvidia’s ray tracing technology and longer game sessions.
The low cost is a surprise. Game streaming requires huge amounts of server-side computing power, and that doesn’t come cheap. Paid tiers from all of Nvidia’s competitors are at least twice as expensive. (Google’s Stadia has promised a free version, but so far not delivered one.) Meanwhile, Nvidia is already giving away both games and game streaming.
Nvidia has tough competition in the streaming wars, and its method of streaming games from a virtualized Windows desktop can be a little clunky — for example asking users to “install” games that are already installed on Nvidia’s servers. Plus, unlike Sony and Microsoft, Nvidia doesn’t have a popular console. Google, which doesn’t have a console, plans to integrate Stadia…
