NVIDIA GeForce Now Gimps Game Streaming With New Monetization, Monthly Play Time Caps

[Cpt.Jank]

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:

• 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

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[bug]

They probably had to do something about the hordes of players taking their service by storm. /s

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

This is the future of PC gaming and it's already locked in.

 

[close]

They probably had to do something about the hordes of players taking their service by storm. /s

Or about constantly changing the deal in their favor because they can and it works. No /s. People are quick to praise a good thing and just as quick to excuse it when it sours and dismiss any concerns. Boiling the frog and all that.

 

[umeng2002]

Sucker them in with good pricing and features then start the enshitification process. And people really thought these services were going to replace dedicated, at-home hardware? lol

 

[bonehead123]

So to summarize:

A new plan to subsidize Jacket Man's leather factory purchases, at the expense of their users.... whodathunkit

 

[Vya Domus]

Bright future ahead of us, not only you're not gonna own any games but you also get caps on playtime.

Very cool, very cyberpunk.

 

[lexluthermiester]

So a crappy service gets crappier? What.. a.. shocker..

 

[Dr_b_]

Coin op/ready player1 over the internet, except its credit card and whaaat? just buy a PC and download the game and play it

 

[chrcoluk]

Wow that is pretty bad, I dont see 100 hours as a lot in all honesty, and 94% is a low number, back in the days when ISPs used to kick heavy users off their service it was ever about 1-2% of people, whilst this is 6% a much bigger number to deem as unacceptable heavy use.

I like the coin-op comment, it what is has become.

 

[bug]

Sucker them in good pricing and features then start the enshitification process. And people really thought these services were going to replace dedicated, at-home hardware? lol

I must have blinked and missed that.

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.

 

[DDCC]

Thank you, Mr Huang, for taking care of my well-being.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Seems like a shite deal in the current subscription form and even worse in the new.

I'm surprised this kind of gameplay subscription thing is even utilized....

 

[kapone32]

Thanks but no thanks I will keep my Games on local storage and not bother with this subscription World they are trying to shove down our throats. First MS with it's 365 BS and now this. At least with Game Pass you get to play as long as you want.

 

[unwind-protect]

Surprising no-one?

 

[bug]

Thanks but no thanks I will keep my Games on local storage and not bother with this subscription World they are trying to shove down our throats. First MS with it's 365 BS and now this. At least with Game Pass you get to play as long as you want.

That's what I was thinking, too. Unless you're on the go with a weak laptop at your side, a Game Pass beats the crap out of this any given day.
That said, people made fun of Nvidia when they started adding compute hardware to their GPUs... Who knows what their long game is?

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Oh hey look, the subscription service is raising prices and providing a worse service again!

Called it. Again. Consoomers will never learn.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Boiling the frog and all that.

I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further.

So to summarize:

A new plan to subsidize Jacket Man's leather factory purchases, at the expense of their users.... whodathunkit

I believe "GeForce Now" is actually just a licensed brand, the company that operates the service is called Abya and they have a lot of cloud streaming platforms.

ABYA

abya.com

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.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Next step? Commercial breaks featuring pharmaceutical companies.

 

[64K]

Never used a game streaming service. Never will. Here's just another reason not too. When I say that I never will I actually mean it. In the almost 20 years since the birth of MTs I've never spent a penny on any of the shit. Never will.

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.

 

[nomdeplume]

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.

Best of luck in your newly instated position on TPU. Best of luck in all you do.

 

[GreiverBlade]

well ... glad i have both of my computers on red side ...

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

 

[skizzo]

seriously, who has time to play video games for 100+ hours a month besides this guy!?

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.

 

[GreiverBlade]

seriously, who has time to play video games for 100+ hours a month besides this guy!?

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.

well ... yeah ... my average is 90hrs/month (100hrs+ without pushing too much and still working 44hrs a week plus having day off filled with skiing biking running and hiking is not that hard tho ) ... but it's a streaming service, so it was already a no go for me

 

[wolf]

Sorry any-and-all game streaming services, I want to do all the rendering locally. I'm not sure it's possible for anyone to make it attractive enough to me to back down from that position.