Nvidia GeForce Now has always stood out among competitors in the game streaming market. Now that the service has finally exited its beta phase, the gap in its appeal is going to widen even more.

GeForce Now is a service that allows PC gamers to harness the power of Nvidia’s dedicated graphics remotely for their PC games. This means that users won't require their own GPUs to play their games at 4K/60fps as long as they are supported by the service. Originally launched as Nvidia Grid back in 2013, the service began its closed betain 2015 and is now exiting that phase.

The Geforce Now service has shed its training wheels and is even offering a free account package to users.

The only catch here is that users can only play each of their PC games for one full hour due to a limited user cue. If they want to skip the line and play for a longer period (up to six hours), they have to sign up for GeForce Now's Premium package, valued at $5.99 per month. This package provides users access to Nvidia's patented RTX GPUs for their ray-tracing feature. This may put GeForce Now at the top of the game streaming food chain.

The lowest denominator

Standing at the bottom of the food chain is Google Stadia. This service is Google’s first foray into the game streaming business and perhaps their last one considering the difficulties surrounding the project.

Initially, things seemed bright for Google Stadia. Like many other streaming services, it allows users to play games provided by its marketplace across various devices. The service also provides its own controller and even supports Chromecast Ultra.

But what really sets Google Stadia apart from the rest is its revolutionary feature that allows viewers to join an active game while it's being video streamed via YouTube, another Google-owned service.

Unfortunately, Google has already fumbled the game streaming service and continues to do so in the face of Nvidia and other competitors.

Nailing the Stadia coffin

Google Stadia got off to a bad start when it was launched in late 2019, and it didn't help that the service was steeply priced. If players wanted to get the most out of Google Stadia's functionality, they had to buy the Founders Edition that included the controller for a whopping $129.

The service didn't offer much, as at launch, just 30 games were being offered to users. And even after purchasing the edition, users had to pay $10 per month just to play the games, according to Verge.

Those games, by the way, were actually being upscaled from 1080p as opposed to being native 4K at 60 fps and it showed. Google Stadia was also plagued with performance issues like graphical glitches that knocked the already questionable visuals down a few more notches.

Nvidia has huge advantages over Google and they will only continue if Google does not improve its service.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED