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
Give them an inch and they will take a mile. Apparently we have to cram this lesson into people's head with a 2x4.
I wish I had more time, but I am not quite like that guy yet :laugh:
Where are our clown emojis? :D
This isn't a service, this is restrictive and invasive, better to just own your own rig.
On topic, are we still getting surprised when some cloud service with obviously unsustainble pricing/offering starts to restrict functionality and jack up prices later on?
:kookoo:
They are old, so they wont have a debit card machine, its all operated by quarters.
Lmao
This ain't going nowhere, but they're trying hard, I agree.No, you're still in a service model with a gatekeeper function, you have and own nothing, and you never will. If MS chooses to monitor and limit playtime you're fucked just the same. They'll just not allow you to get updates, or whatever.
Don't fool yourself. Cloud is always a clusterfuck - even Steam isn't entirely 'safe', it just has the neat quality not costing a monthly fee.That moment you realize you've created such an inefficient, cloud driven service-model-mess you can't even provide enough juice to keep it all going.
Amazing isn't it. Between AI and RT I bet Nvidia is world leader in wasted energy and E-waste. Crypto bad? Nvidia just says 'hold my beer'.
If this isn't a bubble going to pop, we're in an alternate dimension.
This restriction from nVidia is a joke, I can tell you, I have found myself physically incapacitated in many ways before, that give me more than 10 hours I can waste per day and where I game to keep my mind occupied while recuperating.
Just goes to show, hardware at home is the winner here.