NVIDIA GeForce NOW Popularity Grows Despite Big Game Publisher Defections

Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda, and 2K Games removed their games from GeForce NOW, which has led to a lot of finger pointing and anger from some gamers who had enjoyed the service since it was in beta. However, despite the big-name defections, NVIDIA found a defender in Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who said he "wholeheartedly" supports GeForce NOW.

"Game companies who want to move the game industry towards a healthier state for everyone should be supporting this kind of service," Sweeney wrote earlier this month.

Thankfully, it looks as though gamers are sticking with GeForce NOW as well, with NVIDIA announcing in a forum post yesterday that it has already completely sold out of its Founders memberships in the European Union (EU). Even though a Founders membership is a digital subscription, NVIDIA has to limit the number of signups due to issues with server capacity at the moment.

"As you can imagine, we’re experiencing a substantial increase in the number of GeForce NOW players and their amount of playtime," wrote NVIDIA team member Cory in the forum post, acknowledging the coronavirus pandemic and the increased "free time" that many people around the globe now have. NVIDIA says that it is working to "expedite capacity by adding servers in our data centers" and that it will "reopen Founders memberships as capacity allows."

While Founders memberships are sold-out in the EU, signups are still available in the North America, although that isn't expected to last long. With that being said, anyone is able to sign up for a free GeForce NOW membership, although it comes with more restrictions than the $4.99/month Founders membership. 

For example, a free membership gives you "standard access" with limited 1-hour gaming sessions. The Founders membership, however, gives you priority access to servers, "extended session" lengths, and RTX capabilities in supported games.