NVIDIA has been pushing into new territory a lot recently. As AMD nips at the heels of Intel in the CPU space, the GPU battle is also heating up. More competitive pricing and better performance have led to many users questioning the dominance of team green when it comes to graphical power. AMD has certainly been adjusting to better compete with NVIDIA. And while NVIDIA has plenty left in the tank to compete with AMD, the company is taking the wise route and diversifying as well.
And with a newly announced partnership with various brands, the company has revealed a new venture. Chinese gaming giant Tencent has thrown their lot in with the GPU manufacturer to announce a new streaming project called START. Details are still pretty scarce, but according to NVIDIA, “START gives gamers access to AAA games on underpowered devices anytime, anywhere.” Right now, based on what we’re seeing, the service will focus on China as a primary market. No news yet on when or if the NVIDIA START service will come to other regions. The company has apparently been testing the idea for the last year, and is ready to formally announce the service.
“As one of the leading global platforms for game development, publishing and operations, Tencent Games is set to deliver amazing cloud gaming,” said Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of Gaming at NVIDIA. “Combining the Tencent platform with NVIDIA’s GPU technology will provide a world-class experience for gamers everywhere.”
Granted, the recent floppy Stadia launch has certainly cooled hype for cloud-based gaming solutions, but it will be interesting to see that NVIDIA has in store. The entity also announced that they will be working with Japan’s SoftBank and Korea’s LG U+ to provide infrastructure and other support for the project. The new China-focused venture pairs with GeForce Now, which is a cloud gaming service first unveiled for select markets in 2015.
Adding further, Steven Ma senior vice president at Tencent, added that, “NVIDIA’s leadership in building the world’s most powerful GPUs paired with their experience in cloud solutions will empower us to scale our START platform to millions of gamers.” Going further, he teased new projects by saying that “today marks a new opportunity for our companies to further push the frontiers of gaming.”
What new projects aside from NVIDIA START? Well, NVIDIA and Tencent Games also announced a joint mission to pool resources to develop new innovations. The two companies will work together, possibly using feedback from this new streaming service, to deliver optimized and innovative lighting, shading and graphical tech through NVIDIA GPUs and other hardware. There could also be new discoveries in AI optimization and fancy tech like ray tracing from this effort as well.
Source: Press Release
