After several year in free Beta, the Nvidia Geforce Now platform has officially launched and many believe is set to kill the new Google Stadia platform before it has even begun.

I have already reviewed the Geforce Now platform as part of our look at the Nvidia Shield TV. The platform offers cloud gaming which allows users to stream games from the powerful Nvidia servers allowing users to game on any kind of rig, even a mac.

Unlike Google Stadia, the platform allows users to purchase games through third-party games libraries such as Steam or Epic Games. This means that if you cancel your subscription you still own the games you have purchased. Google Stadia on the other hand, and other similar platforms, host your games in their own cloud infrastructure, meaning you can continue to play these games on other platforms if you choose to cancel your subscription. It also means that you do not have to repurchase games you already own, something which has caused criticism for the Google Stadia platform since launch.

Nvidia haven't released the subscription cost for the full platform but is currently offering those who took part in the Beta program, over 300,000 people in total of which I am happy to say I am one, access to the platform as a reduced cost of only $5 (around £3.80) per month.

The subscription will give users access to a growing library of over 300 games and over 30 free to play games. It still has it's limits however, capping users at four hours of consecutive gameplay. Nvidia say this is for two reasons, firstly to allow fair access to the servers for everyone and secondly to avoid "non-gaming" users.

An Nvidia spokesperson said "We just found 99 percent of people aren't playing longer than that". "One of the things that we try to control is non-gaming use, like people mining and things like that that really aren't gaming. ...And we found that at that point, at four hours, most people need a bio-break or something. So it's not really interrupting their gameplay"

The huge library, expected low-pricing and powerful infrastructure means that most tech influencers are backing Nvidia in the race to conquer the new and emerging game-streaming landscape.

View the original article here: https://www.jamiedelgrosso.co.uk/article/nvidia-geforce-now-officially-leaves-beta