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The game streaming service is finally available on Google Stadia’s homefront, as well as Apple’s newest line of M1 Macbooks.
The game streaming service is finally available on Google Stadia’s homefront, as well as Apple’s newest line of M1 Macbooks.
Nvidia’s GeForce Now has officially launched a Chrome browser-based version of the popular game streaming service, alongside a beta version of M1 Mac software. For those of you that don’t know what cloud gaming or GeForce Now is, check out Statural’s article here, which covered a decent portion of the service.
GeForce Now is a cloud gaming service, which allows resource intensive games to be played on laptops or mobile devices, which otherwise couldn’t access or run these games. This is done by running the games natively at Nvidia’s data centers, then sending a video and audio signal to your computer, which essentially watched a stream of your detected in-game movements.
The software was already available on Windows 10 and Android devices through dedicated apps, with iOS beta support having been added not too long ago. They ended up beating Google’s Stadia to iPhone devices, as their service was Chromecast and Chrome browser based. However, GeForce Now is finally available on Chrome, as seen below (upsettingly not from me, since I replaced Chrome with Edge a while ago):
With the Chrome access now enabled, you can use GeForce Now with any Chrome browser, as long as you have a Nvidia account. The service is completely free, with no ads, and the only subscription is to receive an accelerated position when waiting for a virtual ‘rig’ to use. Since all of these games are streamed from a finite number of servers at Nvidia, you’ll have to wait in line.
That’s relatively unlike Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, backed by the #1 and #3 cloud computing providers, who give instantaneous access. The business model and platform is the same however, as your game is streamed from the providers’ servers, meaning that you just connect to Chrome, and run the game remotely.
As I mentioned earlier Microsoft Edge is currently not supported, as it is technically not a Chrome browser. Not to go into detail, but Edge is a Chromium-based browser, built of Chrome’s general architecture, but still a completely different browser.
If you do have Chrome however, just visit http://play.geforcenow.com, logged in of course, then launch games from any attached game service. You can log into Steam, uPlay, or the Epic Games Store, and you have to own the games that you use, unless they’re free.
You can completely sync your Steam library, allowing your homepage to show all GeForce Now compatible games, which you can run. Due to developer and publisher issues, GeForce Now doesn’t necessarily have every game, although it’s literally just a PC streaming footage, so it shouldn’t matter.
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This new addition isn’t any proof that the service’s expansions have been great though, as the previously mentioned licensing issues came up quickly. Developers have to opt-in, and devices are hard to program for, so many games weren’t able to be accessed.
The service also has lower resolution or frame rates than some competing services, such as Google Stadia. A big plus goes GeForce Now for its game availability however, and the lack of needing to buy games twice.
If you’re interested in the service, which is free, remember, check out the compatible device page here, and remember that all you need is a Steam, uPlay, or other account with your game on it, then you can probably start playing.
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