In brief: Nvidia’s efforts to push GeForce Now have brought the service to the Chrome browser, an app almost as ubiquitous as the internet itself. The Windows and macOS versions of the browser are supported in the latest beta GeForce Now version 2.0.27, which also includes support for M1 Macs from within the dedicated macOS client.
Nvidia’s inclusion of Apple M1 support is practical, and the snubbing of Apple, who continues to disallow game streaming services on the App Store, is merely a bonus. But the addition of Chrome support is (or at least appears to be) almost entirely an act of spite against Google, who operates their own game streaming service, Stadia, through Chrome.
That’s because the only platforms that support Chrome but couldn’t previously run some form of GeForce Now, are Windows on Arm and Linux. The latter doesn’t even have official support, but “may work” according to Nvidia’s release notes.
But, it’s nice that you can play on your GeForce Now account without needing to download the client, if for example, you’re playing on a friend’s device. Or in your work or school computer if you’re not supposed to download games.
GeForce Now availability map is shown above. Green regions are supported, and purple regions will be supported soon. White dots are servers, and being closer and having more per person is better — which means that the three people that live in the Australian desert will have the best gaming experience of anyone on the planet. Seriously, Nvidia, it’s not that hard to look at a map of Australian cities.
Nvidia does state that the best performance is achieved through the dedicated client on Windows or macOS, and will even prompt you to download it when you visit the website if you’re on either platform. But apart from the loss of a few options in settings, and a small increase in latency in some games, users haven’t reported any noticeable differences.
Nvidia is also adding new features to the service. A big one is the ability to create desktop shortcuts for particular games. Click on a game to open the details options, and select shortcut to get the prompt. Also in the details options is a new shareable link that will take your friends to the GeForce Now page for the game you’re playing.
Game streaming services like GeForce Now and Stadia are very relevant when new hardware is difficult to purchase, and new games are difficult to run. It’s good to see Nvidia improving theirs.