Nvidia has emailed Shield owners that the chip maker has decided to discontinue the GameStream feature. Starting in mid-February, the company will release an update for Shield devices where GameStream will no longer be available. The news will certainly not sit well with consumers who recently picked up a Shield device during the Black Friday sale.
If you’re not familiar with Nvidia’s GameStream functionality, it enables a Shield TV or Shield tablet to stream their favorite titles from a GeForce GTX-powered PC. The chip maker previously updated GameStream to support frame rates up to 60 FPS at 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution.
Nvidia hasn’t shared why it’s shutting down GameStream. However, the chipmaker has invited Shield users to try GeForce Now. GeForce Now is Nvidia’s cloud streaming service, which is available for free if you want to live with significant limitations. The premium package costs $9.99 per month, while the RTX 3080 tier will set you back $19.99. Nvidia also recommended Valve’s Steam Link as a GameStream replacement. Of course, there’s also AMD Link, which supports non-AMD devices.
Nvidia will disable GameStream in the form of an update to the Nvidia Games app. Shield owners can skip the update, and GameStream will likely work for a while after the grace period. However, it will eventually stop working, and other services like GeForce Now will require users to update the app to continue their functionality. It appears that another development team has linked up with the Moonlight team to create Sunshine, which acts as an open source GameStream host and could be a viable option when GameStream is gone.
Redditor: (opens in new tab) shared a letter from Nvidia, which you can read below.
Starting in mid-February, a scheduled update to the NVIDIA Games app will begin rolling out to SHIELD owners. With this update, the GameStream feature will no longer be available. SHIELD users can continue to use GameStream until then. Visit our FAQ: (opens in new tab) For more information:
SHIELD users can stream games from their PC using free Steam Link App (opens in new tab). Visit Steam Link website (opens in new tab) to learn more.
We also invite you to stream PC games from the cloud using NVIDIA GeForce NOW! (opens in new tab).
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