Nvidia ends GameStream support after nearly a decade

Nvidia is removing GameStream, its in-home game streaming feature, from Shield TVs and tablets early next year.

The planned removal of the service is in mid-February of 2023, according to a support article Nvidia posted on December 16. GameStream has been available for nearly a decade at this point.

GameStream allowed users to stream games to their Shield devices in up to 4K 60fps.

Think of it as an in-home self-hosted version of the company’s cloud game streaming services, GeForce NOW.

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The game streaming service didn’t require a monthly subscription to use. Instead, users needed a powerful gaming PC with an Nvidia graphics card on the same network.

The PC would run the game and stream it to the Nvidia Shield device.

The company has also opted to remove GameStream completely from Shield devices and the GeForce Experience app on PC that handled the streaming side.

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Nvidia says users can replace it with Steam Link, Valve’s built-in game streaming service inside Steam. While that is true, some users say that Steam Link is inferior in quality to GameStream.

We wonder what this means for the Nvidia Shield family of devices. Is this the start of Nvidia phasing those out?

The tablet hasn’t been sold for some time now, and the latest Shield TV device came out in 2019.

We commend Nvidia for supporting its older devices for so long. That can’t be cheap, especially when bringing new device features.

Users can possibly avoid the mid-February update to keep GameStream for a little longer. But there’s no guarantee it won’t stop working entirely at some point after that.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.