Nvidia has unveiled the full release of its GeForce Now game streaming service (formerly known as Grid). It’ll be on the Google Fiber store in Utah, Provo, Kansas City, and Austin on October 1, as well as making its debut in the UK, France, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden on the same date.
Now you’ll be able to stream games from the cloud to an Nvidia Shield device at 1080p and 60FPS. Of course, you’ll need a decent Internet connection to do so. Nvidia recommends 50 Mbps for 1080p, and 20 Mbps for 720p. That's a high bar for gamers in many parts of the United States, where DSL connections still lag behind cities in the 3-6 Mbps range.
GeForce Now costs $8 per month (new customers get the first three months free), and comes with around 60 free games as well as the ability to buy extras. At launch, around 10 games will be available for purchase, with more on the way. For most games you purchase from the store, you’ll get a code for the PC version of that game too. The full list of available games is on the Nvidia website.
Nvidia has said that it aims to get games starting in less than 30 seconds, and claims that it’s two times faster than PlayStation Now, Sony’s equivalent service.
If you’ve been testing Grid, then you’ll see that the old home screen has been replaced by the GeForce hub. Games are placed in categories so you can browse among various franchises and genres. There are also voice commands if you don’t fancy using the controller.
On the non-gaming end of things, Nvidia Shield is being updated with a number of apps including Twitch, the WWE Network, HBO Now, and Showtime Anytime.
