Last week’s tip has rung true. NVIDIA officially launched GeForce NOW today, taking the cloud-gaming service out of beta after many years of experimentation and testing. It is now available to any and all gamers who’d like to piggy-back off of NVIDIA’s powerful machines and play their libraries from anywhere in the world.
GeForce NOW supports any laptop, desktop, Mac, SHIELD TV, or Android device. As previously reported, membership comprises two tiers: a “free” and “Founders” tier. The former is, well, free, but while there’s no costs involved, that tier only allows gamers to stream their favorite titles for just one hour.
The “Founders” tier is much better. This option costs $4.99 a month for 12 months, but users can game for much longer. NVIDIA hasn’t published what the exact session length is, but it says users will be able to “play for hours without interruption.”
Another big perk is ray-tracing support. GeForce NOW Founders get the privilege of streaming their games from NVIDIA’s RTX-powered systems, enabling incredible lighting, shadows, reflections, and other effects that they may not have been able to enjoy on their own, lesser hardware.
The Founders tier is actually a limited-time promotion, but NVIDIA is offering a free 90-day introductory period for those who are on the fence. Those who love it and decide to keep it can agree to the 12-month term.
There’s no indication of how expensive GeForce NOW will get, but Google Stadia, one of its biggest potential competitors, costs $9.99 a month.