NVIDIA Launches GeForce NOW Game Streaming Service 55
MojoKid writes: NVIDIA has championed game streaming for a number of years now, whether it's from a GeForce GTX-equipped PC to one of its SHIELD devices or from its cloud-based GRID gaming beta service to a SHIELD. Today though, NVIDIA is kicking its game streaming business up a notch by launching a new service dubbed GeForce NOW. The service streams PC games from the cloud to SHIELD devices at up to full HD 1080p resolutions at 60 fps. It may be tempting to call GeForce NOW an official re-branding of its GRID game streaming beta but that is reportedly not the case. The GRID beta is going away with the launch of GeForce NOW (an update will replace the GRID app with GeForce NOW), but according to NVIDIA, GeForce NOW was re-architected from the ground up to provide a better overall experience. NVIDIA sees GeForce NOW as sort of a "Netflix for games." There is a monthly fee of $7.99 for a subscription, which gives customers access to a slew of games. There are too many to list but top notch titles like Batman: Arkham City, Ultra Street Fighter IV, GRID 2 and many others are included. In addition to the games included in the subscriptions price, NVIDIA will also be offering GeForce NOW users access to AAA-titles on the day of release, for a fee. The games will typically be sold at a regular retail prices but not only will users get to play those games via the GeForce NOW streaming service on SHIELD devices, they'll also receive a key for playing the game on a PC as well. To use GeForce NOW you'll need an NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV, SHIELD portable, or SHIELD tablet (with the latest software updates installed) and a SHIELD-approved 5GHz router. Your broadband connection must also offer download speeds of at least 12Mb/s. 20Mb/s is recommended for 720p / 60 FPS quality, and 50Mb/s is recommended for 1080p / 60 FPS.
More power to the providers (Score:5, Insightful)
I do not look forward to the future where all entertainment is streamed.
It puts too much power into the hands of the content providers and distribution channels. Arbitrary restrictions such as regional lock outs, approved devices and discriminative pricing are always a part of the package.
While there is a convenience to streaming services. I can only hope that the option for physical/local "ownership" of media is always an option.
Not entirely on topic i know, but relative (to this Luddite anyway)
Good Way to Explain this Kind of DRM to the Unwary (Score:5, Insightful)
The game doesn't even run locally. All you get is streaming video/audio and all the lag you'd expect (including controller lag), which is a recipe for disaster in North America.
Let's say you're lucky enough to have a 30mb/s connection. Why would you want to use it to transfer your game's video instead of, uh, a DVI cable, which is capable of 4 Gb/s? The people who developed DVI apparently understood that that 1920 x 1200 pixels w/ 24 bits/pixels @ 60Hz results in bandwidth well over 3 Gb/s. The people who push streamed gaming seem very, very confused (at best).
Some people consider IPS monitors unsuitable for games requiring fast reflexes (i.e. FPSes) due to their double-digit response times. Internet latency is often worse and certainly more unpredictable than LCD monitor response time, and with streamed games it applies to audio and keyboard/controller/etc input too.
Those of us who know anything about bandwidth and compression and (especially) latency can see the enormous technical obstacles facing a service like this, and I've never heard anyone explain how they intend to solve them. Onlive (for example) did everything they could to lock out independent reviewers with NDAs and closed demonstrations. A friend of mine described it as the gaming equivalent of the perpetual motion scam, and IMO that's spot on (except that streaming would still have the draconian DRM issues even if it worked perfectly).
Streamed gaming appears designed from the ground up to benefit the game publishers and fuck the customers, exactly as you'd expect from any DRM system.
Re:Good Way to Explain this Kind of DRM to the Unw (Score:4, Interesting)
The only way "game streaming" will ever work in my opinion is where files are sent to the machine on a predicted as needed basis. Your local machine will still run the game per usual but the 50GB's of assets will not all be downloaded at one time. Blizzard games are doing this now and it really seems to work well.
Now as for the customer getting the short end of the stick, it's not all bad. If your going to be playing an online game your at the mercy of the publisher anyway. At least with Blizzard's version of streaming you don't have to wait nearly as long to play once you buy it or the patch comes out. So that part is a plus.
I am not sure this is just a DRM scheme, I think it's more of a money grab on the publishers part because anytime you can cut out the middle man you stand to make more money. In this case the middle man would be your local game stores.
So part DRM part money grab part customer service, it's a lot of trade offs and you have to decide what ones your willing to make.
For me Blizzard and Valve have done it right and I buy games from them. Once they decide to turn all evil empire on me I will complain a LOT and everyone will know about it. Until then they are OK in my book for now. On a side note, out of all the game consoles I own I refuse to do any sort of digital purchases anymore. They are so locked in it's just giving customers a middle finger.
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Re:More power to the providers (Score:4, Funny)
To use GeForce NOW you'll need an NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV, SHIELD portable, or SHIELD tablet (with the latest software updates installed) and a SHIELD-approved 5GHz router.
So no-one will be using this service.
and if comcast / espn / other get's there way you (Score:3)
and if comcast / espn / other get's there way you have to buy stuff like ESPN online / diseny online and other for a basic price of $40+ just to just be able to add this on.
Deja Vu (Score:3)
How is this different to that streaming service that went bust a few years ago because there's no way you can play most games with the latency of an Internet connection?
At least, I think it went bust, I haven't heard anything about it in years.
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I highly doubt it's different in regards to latency. Even Steam in-home streaming via ethernet is too laggy for anything other than slow single-player games. It's like playing with 30FPS instead of 60FPS... Rocket League, for instance, feels just slightly mushy control-wise, which is enough to make it hard to accurately hit the ball. It's a significant handicap in any multiplayer game...
DO NOT WANT (Score:5, Interesting)
You want me to install an invasive gaming client that delivers no actual game content to me, imposes a network lag on all input, does not allow me to run a zero-latency LAN gaming session, does not allow me to run my own public server for my friends... And your business model is to get me to pay for this degraded experience?
...Good luck.
Re:DO NOT WANT (Score:4, Insightful)
No, they want people who don't own a gaming beast PC to buy a NVIDIA SHIELD device and play games on it. If you are the sort of person who has a gaming PC and plays games on it, this service isn't for you.
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This isn't the answer you're looking for, but it depends on the games you want to play.
Mobile phones and tablets have a lot of games on them, although many would be characterised as 'casual' and avoid the cash grabbing "free to play" bullshit.
Consoles let you game on your TV using a game controller. They're good for action games, sports games and action oriented RPGs.
PCs are the more expensive option but support almost everything consoles do (Forza being an example of an anomaly) and also let you play RTS,
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Consoles let you game on your TV using a game controller.
PCs are the more expensive option
How's the weather in 2008?
A decent gaming PC (read: as good or better graphics/framerate vs. consoles) w/ HDMI output on a midrange graphics card is $500 now. Steam big picture mode is free, usb controllers are everywhere. New console is what? $100 less? But the higher average price of games means you break even once you buy 3-4 games. Buy more, and the console option costs more than the pc. You know how computers aren't really dramatically faster or more capable today than in 2011? Consoles are even
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How's the weather in 2008?
A decent gaming PC (read: as good or better graphics/framerate vs. consoles) w/ HDMI output on a midrange graphics card is $500 now.
http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspi... [dell.com]
£445 and I haven't added a fucking graphics card yet.
Or just pay £270 for the Xbox One.
I greatly prefer PC games and don't own a console, but do try and have some fucking balance in your response to someone that's looking for useful guidance.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
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Wow, it's easy! Just buy an unassembled PC off some website nobody uses, then send in the mail-in rebate, then get the imaginary free version of windows 10, then build your own computer, and after installing and debugging, you're capable of playing current games at a low frame-rate!
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Lost the charger for your trimmer?
That itchy neckbeard is clearly affecting your mood.
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Wow, that is a lot of anger!
Of course almost anybody here *could* do all of this. But it's non trivial, either. Personally I have better things to do with my time. And for non-Slashdotters...I know a lot of non-techie people who just wouldn't seriously consider building their own computer.
Windows 10 for free is the free upgrade, isn't it? I run Mac and Linux so I don't have old windows disks lying around to upgrade.
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About £200 for me, but that includes broadband and TV and voluntary monthly contributions to two groups in the UK that are working to subvert the government.
GRID (Score:1)
It may be tempting to call GeForce NOW an official re-branding of its GRID game streaming beta but that is reportedly not the case. The GRID beta is going away with the launch of GeForce NOW (an update will replace the GRID app with GeForce NOW), but according to NVIDIA, GeForce NOW was re-architected from the ground up to provide a better overall experience.
So it's an official re-branding GRID.
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The only cows are the ones who buy that marketing drivel.
See Malibu Stacy and new hats.
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Which is actually the smartest move they can make for that brand, given https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org], although I think I'm the only parson in the world to ever make the connection. One of my favorite things at GDC for the past ~3 years was going to their booth and asking "are you seriously sticking with GRID? All caps?", they seemed to be completely clueless about it..
Money for old rope (Score:2)
I hate companies that limit features to particular branded hardware for marketing rather than any actual technical reason.
This app allows you to use nvidia gamestream with other android devices:
https://play.google.com/store/... [google.com]
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Seems to be very common in the android world with Samsung.
Often you get the excuse that rather than "backroom" deals, this is to ensure compatibility and customer experience.
I say, these companies should make it clear that they will only "support" the supplier they are in bed with and get rid of these arbitrary restrictions.
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This app allows you to use nvidia gamestream with other android devices:
Not here it doesn't. It won't find my PC.
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Install NoMachine and find out.
I had about 80ms over normal Internet and about 160ms average through a HTTP proxy. Image quality was pretty good.
So the PC with Nvidia cards sucks? (Score:2)
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This service is for people who dont want to buy a gaming PC.
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It's getting quite hard to NOT buy a gaming PC, given the fact even the intel solutions are now able to run most good games at a decent frame rate.
The era where you could buy a machine that won't even boot the games is quite over.
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The problem is Mac (though they can run some amount of games) and, more importantly, lap-tops.
Those macbook air don't run games very well. They'll run them, sure. But after 2 years? They'll still work fine for email and word processing and light image editing. But for games? Nope nope nope.
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They didn't snuck the iris pro on those air macbooks yet?
Services (Score:1)
Great! I really look forward to running the crash-tacular, semi-required, starting with boot service that Nvidia is going to include in their next set of drivers, even though I never plan on paying for this. Just like their SHIELD streaming service, which breaks things in subtle ways if you disable it (increasing Thunderbird start time by ~10 seconds, for example).
A little math (Score:2)
For the sake of argument, lets assume you're using the minimum requirement of 12Mb/s. Lets also assume you're on the high end of the average american household ISP data cap [consumerreports.org] at around 300GB/month. This means you're getting 0.9132Mb/s [wolframalpha.com] of sustained usage rate all month long to fit beneath your data cap.
If you take that 300GB cap and divide it out at a rate of 12Mb/s, that means you can use their service for 2 [wolframalpha.com]
Good for fiber optics only (Score:2)
Face it this is only to be considered if you have fiber at home, because that's where the latency is lowest. Or perhaps some cable deployments.
You even have to consider monitor latency, and wired ethernet vs wifi. Consumer will use the laggy TV without turning off or tweaking processing, and will rarely run an ethernet cable from TV to router, unless they're within 20 cm from each other : that's one weakness of the plan.
Really if the conditions are met that seems a fine and neat system. It eliminates the ne
They sorry now? (Score:2, Insightful)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYWzMvlj2RQ
Streaming video games is weak on it's own merits. PC and console are already the best bets. Nvidia deserves to lose every penny they allocate for a Linux (Android) game device. For years and years they stymied Linux and now they want to profit on Android. Dicks. Yeah their video cards are good, so were 3DFX's who they sued and bought out. Credit for good video cards goes to their devs, not their management.
http://www.geek.com/games/nvidia-sues-3dfx-564829/
htt
Yeah ok. (Score:1)
Optimal FPS (Score:1)