14 MAY2020|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE
NVIDIA’SGEFORCENOWgame-streaming service hasfinallylaunched,
leaving its lengthy beta versiontopipe demanding games acrossthe
internet to low-powered devices.
In caseyou’ve been living under arock forthe pastyear or so,GeForce
Now is effectively aform of ‘Netflix forgames’ in that you canstream
select games to all manner of devices,fromthe
Nvidia Shield console andPCs, to laptopswith
integrated graphics and smartphones.
Nvidia achieved this by setting up a
cloud-based game streaming service created
by fillingdata centre servers with powerful
graphics cards and other hardware to effectively
takecare of the graphics rendering, heavy lifting
and computing tasks, and then using adecent
internet connection to pipe avideo feed of a
gametoacompatibledevice.
Initialreactionshavebeen positive, with
GeForce Nowpraisedfor being able to stream
games at 1080p resolution withvirtuallynolag,providing you have afast
enough broadband connection.
However,it’s farfromperfect, as not onlyisa15Mbit/sinternet
connection required, which might be out of the reach of people in areas
thatcan’t get fibrebroadband, but the number of gamesavailable to
stream on the serviceisalso limited.
Thiswas something that blighted the launch of Google’s Stadia
game-streaming service,but while that’sgaining games, Nvidia has just
lostall ActivisionBlizzard games from GeForce Now.
At first, this seemed like amovebythe giantgames publisher to
ensure peoplewho want to playits games have to buy themoutright, not
stream them fromaservice forarather modest
monthly cost. But closer inspection revealed
the games shouldn’t have been thereinthe first
place,and Nvidia admitted it made amistake.
“Activision Blizzardhas been afantastic
partner during theGeForceNow beta, whichwe
took to include thefree trial period forour
founders membership,” Nvidia said.
“Recognisingthe misunderstanding, we
removed the games fromour service,with hope
we can work with them to re-enable these, and
more, in thefuture.”
However,afuture partnership between Nvidia
and Blizzard Activisionmight nothappen,asthe gamepublisher wanted
to negotiateanew commercialagreement with Nvidia before the graphics
giant could serve up its gamesonGeForce Now,according to Bloomberg.
As Nvidia hassaid it won’t have commercial agreements with games
publishers as part of its business modelfor GeForce Now,such an
agreement with Activision Blizzard isn’t likelytohappen.
SAYWHAT?
Nvidia’s ‘Netflix for games’ launches amid controversy
ITNORMALLYTAKESashortageofraw materials
to halt chip and tech production, but as the
outbreak of COVID-19 –orcoronavirus as it’s more
commonlycalled –has shown, biological events can
also wreak havoc on thetechnology world.
While coronavirus hasspread across the
globe to varying degrees, it hashad thelargest
impact in China, itscountryoforigin.That’s hardly
surprising giventhe country’s vast population,
but the virus hasalso had adirecteffect on the
technology world.
Companies including Tesla, Qualcomm and Hon Hai –whichmakes
iPhones forApple, as well as products forHPand Sony –haveall been
affected by the virus outbreak. The reasonisthat all of those companies
have manufacturing and supply chain links in China; the country plays
host to major semiconductor foundries, forexample.
In abid to curtail the spread of coronavirus and protect the health of
workers, manyofthese factories have beenshutdown whilequarantines
are in effect. And closed factories means ashortage of parts andproducts
forthe aforementioned companies and others to sell.
Tesla, forexample,saw its stock price tumble by 17% when it
announcedthat supply chainproblems would mean adelayindeliveries
of its Model 3electric cars.
Even Apple,with its vast wealth, was forced to
reviseits first-quarter revenue forecast. The firm
closed42ofits stores in China, and reported there
had been very low footfall in the storesthat had
remained open and runningatreduced hours.
“Weare gradually reopening our retail stores
and will continuetodosoassteadily and safely as
we can,”said Apple.
The result is Applereduced its earnings forecast
foronly thesecond timeinnearly two decades.
Closertohome,coronavirus has also shaken up
along-standing fixture in theindustry’scalendar:Mobile World Congress
(MWC) in Barcelona.AfterSony,LG, Nvidia, Amazon, MediaTek and Intel
all pulled out of the international conferencedue to concerns about the
massgathering of peoplefromacross theworld potentiallyexposing
others to coronavirus,MWC’s organisers, the GSMA, decided to cancel
the conference,which incidentallyShopperwas due to attend.
Thismade it clearthatcoronavirus was notjustaproblem forpeople
exposed to it in faraway lands or in quarantined hospitals, butsomething
that has, at thetime of writing, an industrialimpact.
Theprevailing concern around coronavirus is naturally itsdeath toll,
which has sadly increased as the outbreak spread. But as action is taken
to control the virus, its wider impact comes intoview.
Coronavirus outbreak infects the tech industry
SAYWHAT?
