Thursday, November 7th 2024
NVIDIA GeForce Now Gimps Game Streaming With New Monetization, Monthly Play Time Caps
NVIDIA today announced incoming changes to its GeForce Now game streaming service, some of which are not likely to sit well with gamers. The biggest, and likely most controversial change coming to GeForce Now is the addition of monthly playtime caps for all GeForce Now users, regardless of which plan they're on. According to the blog post announcing the changes, GeForce Now gamers will be limited to 100 hours of gameplay per month in addition to the daily playtime caps. NVIDIA will allow gamers who don't use their whole monthly cap to roll 15 hours of game time into the following month.
It's not all bad news, however, as NVIDIA also announced that it will be increasing the resolution and image quality of the GeForce Now Performance tier—previously Priority—from 1080p to 1440p. The Ultimate and Basic tiers remain unchanged in both name and feature set. NVIDIA says the playtime limit was necessary in order "to continue providing exceptional quality and speed—as well as shorter queue times." Of course players can buy extra playtime at a rate of $2.99 for 15 hours of GeForce Now Performance and $5.99 for 15 hours of GeForce Now Ultimate. The playtime limits will come into effect on January 1, 2025, and anyone that signs up for a paid GeForce Now subscription before then won't be subjected to the new playtime limits until January 2026.
NVIDIA says the playtime limits will be adequate for 94% of GeForce Now users, and advises gamers to use the GeForce Now Playtime Details dashboard to monitor their usage to avoid accidentally going over the maximum time. NVIDIA is also discounting the GeForce Now Day Pass by 25%, reducing the cost to $2.99 for Performance Day Pass and $5.99 for Ultimate Day Pass. This discount, in combination with NVIDIA's promise of delayed playtime limits for new users that subscribe before December 31, seem like an attempt to soften the blow of the new playtime requirements and garner new subscribers.
NVIDIA also announced a host of new games joining GeForce Now in November:
Source:
NVIDIA
It's not all bad news, however, as NVIDIA also announced that it will be increasing the resolution and image quality of the GeForce Now Performance tier—previously Priority—from 1080p to 1440p. The Ultimate and Basic tiers remain unchanged in both name and feature set. NVIDIA says the playtime limit was necessary in order "to continue providing exceptional quality and speed—as well as shorter queue times." Of course players can buy extra playtime at a rate of $2.99 for 15 hours of GeForce Now Performance and $5.99 for 15 hours of GeForce Now Ultimate. The playtime limits will come into effect on January 1, 2025, and anyone that signs up for a paid GeForce Now subscription before then won't be subjected to the new playtime limits until January 2026.
NVIDIA also announced a host of new games joining GeForce Now in November:
- Planet Coaster 2 (New release on Steam, Nov. 6)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate (New release on Steam, Nov. 6)
- Empire of the Ants
- Unrailed 2: Back on Track
- TCG Card Shop Simulator
- StarCraft II
- StarCraft Remastered
73 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce Now Gimps Game Streaming With New Monetization, Monthly Play Time Caps
A new plan to subsidize Jacket Man's leather factory purchases, at the expense of their users.... whodathunkit :D
Very cool, very cyberpunk.
I like the coin-op comment, it what is has become.
Seriously though, I work for companies that still fall for the "move everything to cloud; oh, there's the bill" bit. It's a safe bet the average use won't be smarter than that.
I'm surprised this kind of gameplay subscription thing is even utilized....
That said, people made fun of Nvidia when they started adding compute hardware to their GPUs... Who knows what their long game is?
Called it. Again. Consoomers will never learn.
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Nvidia probably still has a say in what they do, but the time gate has always been the reason why I don't believe it is a good service, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's xCloud is a complimentary feature and you can play as much as you want.
I buy the games that I want and play them when I want and replay quite a few of the truly great ones all the way back to the mid 1990s on occasion. You don't get that option with a streaming service.
on a more serious note : never used a streaming app ... aside local STEAM streaming for fun and test ... from my main rig to my ROG Ally, at max 2hrs but hey! it's free!
or i can hook up my Ally to a wallwart with a 2m cable ... tho it's still free ... (well it can also play most of them locally )
if i want to get some app... i would rather pay for Xbox Pass, than any streaming app
and certainly not GeForceNOTNow 1440p 8 vCPU @ 9.99, i still prefer 1620p on 8/16 X3D+RX 7900 XTX and 720/900/1080p on 8/16+780M
I understand the gripe, it's a shitty policy based on principle, but......lol.....wow.....some people don't do moderation well. being addicted to video games is not healthy.