The Steam Deck is a great device, but it ain’t exactly a powerhouse. And with new graphics cards coming into the market from every angle, plus new AAA games that almost demand them, the Steam Deck’s aging integrated setup isn’t looking any hotter.
Enter GeForce Now, Nvidia’s PC game streaming service, which is slated to hit the Steam Deck and enable the remote playing of games.
The beta for this app has been available for over half a year, a modified browser shortcut that uses the Linux version of Chrome. But according to a new announcement, Nvidia is preparing a downloadable “native app” that will be installed on the hardware itself.
With it, players will get access to all of GeForce Now’s streaming power, with the highest tier supporting up to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second if you’ve connected an external TV or monitor.
When? “Later this year.” Oof, that’s a hard three words to hear in the first week of January. I suppose if you want a native GeForce Now app, there are plenty of Windows-powered handheld gaming PCs available right now… and streaming games remotely might be the best way to play them, assuming you have a rock-solid connection wherever you go.
Possibly more interesting is a new push to get GeForce Now into the world of virtual reality, or at least get it up on those screens. According to the blog post, an incoming update to the browser version of GeForce Now will add compatibility for Meta’s Quest 3 and 3S headsets, the Apple Vision Pro (for all five of you who still have one), and the Pico series of headsets. It should be live later this month, so you won’t have to wait long for that functionality.
Unfortunately, this one does come with a big caveat. The browser version of GeForce Now doesn’t really include all the fancy tech needed to support virtual reality games, as seen in the official Meta and Steam VR stores. GeForce Now on these platforms will be compatible with “gamepad-compatible titles,” apparently not even stretching to mouse-and-keyboard affairs. So much for getting your Elite Dangerous sessions in on a road trip, I suppose.
