As Nvidia marks the second anniversary of the launch of its games streaming service, it has decided to shake up its memberships and service. In an email to HEXUS Nvidia said that from today Nvidia Founders memberships are no longer available, instead those who wish to pay for an elevated level of service will be steered towards Priority membership.
Priority membership is an offering with exactly the same service level as the Founders membership provided (see membership benefits chart below) but things are going to be more expensive from now on. As a thank you for existing Founders members, Nvidia has introduced the Founders for life benefit which locks in the special $4.99 / £4.99 introductory rate as long the account is in good standing. Priority members will be paying $9.99 / €9.99 / £8.99 per month starting from now. Yearly rates of $99.99 / €99.99 / £89.99 will also be available.
Nvidia is keen to explain how it has improved GeForce Now over the last year, which goes some way to justifying these price hikes. It lists the following key upgrades:
- Supporting day-and-date launches, like Cyberpunk 2077, and top free-to-play games
- Increasing the game library, which now includes more than 800 games
- There are now nearly 10 million GFN members
- Opening new data centres, giving us more than 20 around the world
- Expanding capacity in existing data centres, allowing us to grow the service further
- Improving quality of service, with even more optimizations on the way.
It goes on to assert that upgrades and benefits are set to grow, with particular attention to streaming quality and ease of use, and adding more games.
One upcoming improvement that might interest potential subscribers is the new adaptive V-sync technology, set to arrive with the 2.0.28 update in about a week's time. This feature synchronizes frame rates at 60 or 59.94Hz at the server-side to match the display client-side, reducing stutter and latency on supported games. Moreover, a new adaptive de-jitter technology will enable us to increase bit rates for improved quality over choppy networks, too.
Another nicety worth anticipating is the account linking of key games, as well as pre-loading updates to cut load times in about half. Nvidia's busiest data centres are all getting additional capacity, and a new data centre opens in Montreal in the coming months. As for new regions, Nvidia has recently partnered with network providers in Turkey, with Saudi Arabia and Australia.
Since it is again GeForce Thursday, 7 new games have been added to GeForce Now. These include:
- Do Not Feed the Monkeys (Steam)
- GoNNER (Steam)
- Loop Hero (Epic Games Store)
- Monopoly Plus (Steam)
- Snooker 19 (Steam)
- System Shock: Enhanced Edition (Steam)
- Wanba Warriors (Steam)
