INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Nvidia GeForce Now hit the streets like a month ago, and in what was a surprise to literally no one, it is the best game streaming service
from AAA heavy hitters like Bethesda to Indie developers like Hinterland Studio, which just yanked its game The Long Dark off of the service
and money into the platform
There are certainly people who think that game streaming is the future of gaming, but when you can't be guaranteed access to the games you
Nvidia)Let's get the good stuff out of the wayOne thing I have to say before I start telling people to avoid GeForce Now is that it's
actually pretty freaking great
I'll admit that our friends over at PC Gamer actually put it through the paces much more than I've had the chance to do, and they found that
it has much less latency than Google Stadia
For a company like Google, which is practically synonymous with "the internet," it's super surprising that Nvidia could win in this
Nvidia needs to work on getting a 4K version of GeForce Now running)
This is largely thanks to the fact that you're running native PC versions of games, allowing for settings like ray tracing and DLSS that the
even if a lot of games keep getting sucked out of the service
There are so many PC games out there that GeForce Now has a potential game library that could absolutely dwarf any game console, let alone
competing streaming service
But, therein lies the problem.Nvidia GeForce Now is probably the only gaming platform without Skyrim (Image credit: Bethesda)The case of the
disappearing PC gamesI don't know who to blame for the games that keep disappearing from Nvidia GeForce Now
Is it Nvidia's fault for allegedly adding games without permission from developers according to this GameRant report? Or should the blame
lie on behalf of game developers not allowing users to play games that they paid money for on the platform of their choice? Or is it
both?The way I look at it, Nvidia GeForce Now functionally acts as a PC rental service
You're essentially borrowing a PC to play PC games that you wouldn't otherwise be able to run on hardware you have locally available to you
A report from The Verge dives into the legal reasons why it isn't looked at in this way by game developers and publishers, but functionally
industry from the outside
Nvidia told The Verge that publishers "are taking a while to make up their minds" on whether or not their games will be available
While to you and I, Nvidia is just renting out a remote PC to play games, legally speaking that's not the way it works
having to face tough truths about the game industry
Even Google Stadia is starting to feel the sting of licensing agreements, as it is having trouble growing a sizable library
According to a Business Insider piece, Google is hinging its service entirely on huge AAA games that are available on other platforms,
without the thick library of indie games that give other game platforms life between big tent-pole releases
basically, both of the major game streaming services out right now are having trouble either getting games onto their platforms or keeping
Both Google and Nvidia are new to this part of the game industry, so it's to be expected that there would be growing pains there
when Microsoft xCloud makes its way to market, we'll finally have a game streaming service that isn't so mired in disappointment
Microsoft definitely has weight it can throw around in the industry which, when combined with the power of Azure, could lead to Microsoft
easily taking the throne in the game streaming world
We'll have to wait and see there, though.This remains the best way to play PC games, sorry (Image credit: Future)Keep it localBecause
licensing is such a mess for both Stadia and GeForce Now, playing your games locally on one of the best gaming PCs is the best course of
Don't get me wrong, the way that digital game licenses work means that game publishers can absolutely take away your games for pretty much
at GeForce Now at this time is that it's an excellent secondary service
If you have a MacBook that you're taking with you on the road, and you want to play your favorite game, it's an excellent choice
It's true that there are some gaming laptops out there that are getting extremely thin and light, but none of them are quite on the level of
use it as their main gaming platform
The fact that you have to buy the games through Steam, and then hope that the game publisher doesn't pull the game from Nvidia's platform
record by saying this, but if you want to play PC games, you should consider building or buying a gaming PC.I get that it's significantly
more expensive up front to do this, but if you play your games locally, you're much less likely to have to deal with publishers and platform
access to, you don't need to drop too much cash
According to some leaks, it's only using 14GB of RAM, a custom Intel processor with 4-cores and 8-threads and a custom Nvidia processor with
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, or without ray tracing with the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
access to all the latest and greatest PC hardware, I'm having a good ol' time with Nvidia GeForce Now, as I can play some of my favorite
games while sitting on my couch with my MacBook
That, I think is the ideal use-case for this technology right now.Services like Nvidia GeForce Now and Google Stadia are exciting little
bits of technology, and the future may indeed be bright for game streaming
However, with the messy way that the game industry functions, it probably won't be the best way to primarily play your games for a while
Until Microsoft throws its hat in the ring with xCloud, game streaming is going to be a very specific niche, meant for folks that have
killer internet connections and other ways to play games when either the service is having a rough time, or when their favorite games are no
