Summary
- NVIDIA doesn’t provide a store for games. Instead, GeForce NOW provides the flexibility to play games you purchase elsewhere.
- NVIDIA GeForce NOW enables gaming on a wide spectrum of gadgets.
- Cloud gaming delivers impressive graphics and consistent performance at a lower cost than a high-end gaming PC.
NVIDIA has enough money, and I don’t particularly want to give them more—but with GeForce NOW, the company has absolutely nailed how to do cloud gaming the right way.
You Aren’t Locked to One Digital Store
Game consoles usually only support one digital storefront. If you buy an Xbox, you get your games from Microsoft. If you buy a PlayStation, you get your digital games from the PlayStation Store. Prefer the Switch? Those games come from the Nintendo eShop. There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about this,
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The Games Industry Is Pushing Hard for an All-Digital Future, and I’m Worried
Physical games are becoming less relevant every year.
Being able to buy games from whichever store you want is one of the advantages of buying physical games over digital ones. It’s also one of the perks of PC gaming. You can buy games from Steam, but you can also get your titles from other sellers, like GOG.com.
While Xbox Game Pass brings the Xbox experience to the cloud, NVIDIA GeForce NOW emulates PCs. You get access to much of your Steam library, but you can also stream games you’ve bought through Xbox, Epic, Ubisoft, and elsewhere.
This flexibility allows me to cancel GeForce NOW someday without losing access to all of my games, something many companies would view as reason not to support such interoperability. They prefer to lock customers in. But it’s precisely this freedom that has led me to choose GeForce NOW. I can buy games from whichever store offers the best deals and access those games from a single place.
I Can Play on Any Type of Device
I like software freedom, the ability to use apps how I wish and without restrictions. I used Linux for years, in part for this reason. It’s hardware freedom that got me to switch from a Linux PC to a foldable Samsung phone I can use as a 3-in-1 device. My phone is both my tablet and my PC.
GeForce Now supports this flexibility. If I’m in bed and want a handheld experience, I can stick my phone into an extendable controller and have a Steam Deck-like experience. If I’m playing something that benefits from a keyboard and mouse, I can load up Samsung DeX, launch GeForce NOW, and forget that I’m not actually a PC gamer.
When I want to do some couch gaming, I pick up the Bluetooth controller that stays paired to my Samsung Frame TV and launch GeForce NOW directly from there. If I want to game without disturbing anyone, I can get back in bed, plug a pair of AR glasses into my phone, and have a theatrical gaming experience without bothering the family.
This is the kind of freedom I would give up if I bought an Xbox or PlayStation. Even a Nintendo Switch, versatile as it is, comes with more compromises. That’s not a dig at the Switch—I still plan to buy a Switch 2.
The Graphics Are Incredible
As a console gamer, the last non-Nintendo systems I owned came out in the early 2000s. As someone who spent a lot of time on the Wii and Wii U, I was accustomed to missing out on the best graphics gaming had to offer.
As a PC gamer, which I’ve dabbled with on and off over the years, I’ve never owned a high-end graphics card. The Steam Deck was the closest I ever got to a power gaming rig.
This means that cloud gaming is offering me the best graphics I’ve ever experienced. NVIDIA has set the bar high, even on the lower tiers. Yet as pretty as these visuals already are, I’m not playing with the best graphics GeForceNOW is able to push to my devices. Frankly, I see the need to spend more. The premium tier looks great.
Performance Is Consistently Good
I was skeptical that cloud gaming could deliver anything remotely close to a native gaming experience. I grew up with dial-up and under-powered computers. I’m accustomed to lag and stutters born from hardware and internet connections alike.
You can imagine my surprise at how quickly, after firing up GeForce NOW for the first time, I forgot I was playing online. Gameplay was smooth, and controller input is instant, at least for my offline, single-player needs. I’ve never been a big fan of online multiplayer, and I believe anyone who tells me cloud gaming isn’t great for that. As for me, do I occasionally experience lag? Sure, but it’s comparable to what I experienced playing games directly on my laptop or Steam Deck. The causes of occasional dropped frames may differ, but the end result isn’t that different. It’s much more consistently reliable than I expected.
Obviously, based on your internet speeds and the bandwidth being consumed in your area, your mileage may vary.
It’s Much Cheaper Than Buying a Gaming PC
GeForce NOW requires a monthly subscription, and I’m not a fan of subscriptions. I’m effectively renting access to a PC in the clouds, and I don’t like renting either. I prefer to own.
Yet it’s hard to argue with the value. I can get a year of GeForce NOW for $100. While I expect NVIDIA will raise prices, let’s say they remain consistent for three years. At that point, I’ve only spent $300. That’s still less than a Nintendo Switch. I’m a couple of years away from spending as much money as owning a Steam Deck, and maybe a decade away from the cost of a desktop gaming PC. All of that hardware, mind you, needs to be replaced or upgraded to maintain access to the latest games.
I’m not arguing that streaming is better than owning. But for someone who doesn’t already have the hardware, it’s cheaper.
I don’t want to be rooting for either NVIDIA or cloud gaming in general. I like owning hardware, and I like owning my own games. Yet, despite all of that, I play my games using GeForce NOW, and I’m having fun doing it.
