NVIDIA Shield Ends GameStream Service & Recommends Steam Link Plus GeForce NOW As Replacements

NVIDIA has recently announced the removal of the company's GameStream service from its Shield TV and Shield TV Pro products. Shield TV has been a staple in the Android Set-Top box marketplace and has carried a hefty price tag. For functionality, the system is capable of not only Android game titles on the device, powered by the Tegra X1+ processor and an integrated 256-core GPU, but also efficiently utilizing cloud local LAN services. However, the software GameStream is quite outdated, which the green team has chosen to remove from its Shield TV product lines.

NVIDIA to cancel GameStream service, forcing users to use Steam or the company's proprietary cloud service for continued gaming

Users were emailed recently from NVIDIA, stating that beginning February 2023, NVIDIA will discontinue support for GameStream, which will alter the NVIDIA Games application and sever the capability of streaming games from a local computer. The NVIDIA Games app uses GeForce RTX and GTX models to wirelessly stream games to NVIDIA Shield TV and Shield TV Pro products at 4K resolutions with 60 frames per second on the lowest latency.

NVIDIA recommends users use Steam Link through the company's GeForce NOW software, which would require a user to use Steam for their games (if they are not already) or pay for the GeForce NOW cloud gaming service to get their games. Redditor users are recommending a few different alternatives to NVIDIA's services, two applications called Sunshine and Moonlight.

The removal of GameStream from the Set-Top Shield TV series products is unclear for current users and how it would affect functionality. NVIDIA has yet to remove the advertising for NVIDIA GameStream on its website, which could confuse new users unaware of the changes.

AMD offers a similar service to NVIDIA called AMD Link, which the company fully supports and just recently announced the expansion of its proprietary streaming service. The company's service uses the AV1 RX 7900 encoder, allowing up to four players on a single gaming computer.

NVIDIA GeForce NOW has three options for membership, ranging from free to as high as $19.99 per month or $99.99 for six months. Users who choose the highest tier will gain access to a cloud PC with a GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card and RTX activated, eight hours of use at 4K resolutions, and up to 120 frames per second.

The post NVIDIA Shield Ends GameStream Service & Recommends Steam Link Plus GeForce NOW As Replacements by Jason R. Wilson appeared first on Wccftech.