Last year at MWC LA 2019, NVIDIA announced that it would be partnering with more telecom operators for its cloud-based gaming streaming service, GeForce NOW, including Taiwan Mobile. Although the official launch in Taiwan had been repeatedly delayed for various reasons, the service finally went live today (August 8th).
After a long period of beta testing, GeForce NOW was released in early February this year.Officially announced the launch of online operations, and subsequently announced global partnerships with Russia's SAFMAR Group, Rostelecom, Japan's Softbank, KDDI, South Korea's LG U+, Spain's Telefonica, and Taiwan's Taiwan Mobile.7 telecom operatorsBy collaborating and forming the GeForce NOW Alliance, users can not only use NVIDIA's servers in various regions to stream game services, but also directly use local telecom operators' servers to provide streaming services to users "nearby".
Increase access efficiency
In terms of cloud streaming gaming service usage, users can actually access the GeForce NOW service directly through their devices (such as mobile phones, computers, or tablets). However, the actual network connection operation mode behind the scenes still requires the network equipment of telecommunications operators or Internet service providers, and then access the GeForce NOW service in the form of edge computing.
Therefore, one of the reasons why NVIDIA cooperated with local telecom operators on the GeForce NOW service is to enable cloud streaming game services to be provided at faster transmission rates. After all, unlike streaming video services, which mainly stream content to the device for playback, and can even buffer data on the device side, even if the network signal is temporarily unstable or disconnected, users can still continue watching by buffering the temporary data. Streaming game services also involve the user side transmitting back operation controls, and such needs must be met with faster network transmission rates.
In order to achieve a more immediate online streaming gaming experience, network transmission speeds must obviously be faster. In addition, if you want to play anytime, anywhere, the faster transmission speed of 5G network will be a better choice. In addition, if game content streaming can be provided directly on the telecommunications and Internet service providers, the streaming gaming experience will definitely be smoother.
Avoid excessive access traffic
Just as Netflix collaborates with telecom operators in various regions, even placing content directly on their servers, it disperses network traffic by adding access nodes to prevent specific servers from being overloaded and causing service outages and disconnections. NVIDIA's decision to collaborate with telecom operators on its GeForce NOW service is driven by similar considerations: distributing the more connection-intensive streaming game traffic across more nodes to avoid server outages caused by the demand for popular games.
On the other hand, since there are still regional restrictions on the provision of game content, cooperation with local telecommunications operators can actually make the management and use of game content partitions easier, and even prevent cross-region access to games through VPN and other means.
Increase added value for telecom operators, reduce NVIDIA maintenance costs, and make it easier for users to pay
Telecom operators choose to cooperate with NVIDIA on the GeForce NOW streaming game service. On the one hand, it is to increase the additional content provided by their network services, and on the other hand, it is to increase revenue through this service of NVIDIA. NVIDIA can expand its GeForce NOW service by cooperating with telecom operators, while also reducing the maintenance costs required for its own services.
As for users, in addition to being able to access the GeForce NOW service through the nearest telecom operator's servers, they can even directly integrate their telecom service bills, making it easier to pay for the GeForce NOW service subscription. The main benefit is a smoother and more stable cloud streaming gaming experience.
