Nvidia said it will launch a completely free, no-strings-attached trial of its cloud gaming service GeForce Now on Wednesday, February 28. edgeusers will start seeing ads.
They’re only available on the Free Tier, not the Priority or Ultimate Editions, and even then, it doesn’t sound like they’ll interrupt your gameplay. “Free users will begin seeing ads for up to two minutes while waiting in line to start a game,” Nvidia spokesperson Stephanie Ngo wrote.
Currently, the free tier does often involve queuing for a remote computer to be released before each hour of free play – now, I imagine there will be some advertising as well. Nvidia says the ads should help pay for the free service, and it expects the change to “reduce average wait times for free users over time.”
My problem with the GeForce Now free tier has never been its queue, but rather that it’s the least impressive version of the company’s service to date and doesn’t show off what cloud gaming is truly capable of. For that, you really need to try GeForce Now Ultimate, which gives you the power of an RTX 4080 in the cloud, significantly reduces latency, and now supports G-Sync monitors. But currently it still costs $20 per month, and there’s no free trial.
The company plans to send an email to all free tier users tomorrow, February 27, to let them know about the ads.