NVIDIA announces GeForce NOW day passes and more at CES 2024

CES 2024 is upon us and news from all over the tech world is headed our way for the next few days. Though we don’t anticipate too much from a Chromebook perspective at this year’s event, there’s a bit of very interesting cloud gaming-focused news coming out of NVIDIA’s camp to start the week. From a few new big-name games to the introduction of day passes for GeForce NOW, there are some big updates to hear about from Las Vegas this year.

Day passes for GeForce NOW are coming

In my opinion, the biggest announcement for GeForce NOW today is the introduction of day passes for both the Ultimate and Priority tiers of GeForce NOW. That means instead of paying for a full month or 6 months at a time, potential new users can opt to try out the service in their own setting with their connection speeds for a full 24 hours before making a bigger commitment.

The Ultimate tier will be on offer for a 24-hour day pass for $7.99 and the Priority tier will be just $3.99. Though a full month is far cheaper than that per day, I like this move from NVIDIA as it gives those on the fence a very low barrier to entry to give the streaming game service a real, honest try. If successful, I’d imagine we’ll see plenty of players find that GeForce NOW is totally legit and the service could see a nice uptick of users from this new pricing option. Look for those day passes to arrive in February.

Big-name games are coming

In addition to the day passes, GeForce NOW is continuing to broaden its library by adding a few notable games from Blizzard like Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 as a part of the 10-year deal with Microsoft to bring more titles to the cloud. Much like we’ve seen with the introduction of Activision’s Call of Duty on GeForce NOW, these larger game studios and their prized franchises are starting to arrive left and right on NVIDIA’s platform, and it’s really a win-win for everyone.

Even better cloud-based tech from NVIDIA

NVIDIA is also announcing the impending arrival of Cloud G-SYNC, bringing their existing G-SYNC tech to cloud-based games on GeForce NOW.

Coming soon, cloud G-SYNC technology will raise the bar even further, minimizing stutter and latency, with support for variable refresh rate monitors and fully optimized for G-SYNC-compatible monitors. With Cloud G-SYNC enabled, GeForce NOW will vary the display’s refresh rates to match the streaming rate, for the smoothest gameplay experience available from the cloud.

via the NVIDIA Blog

Ultimate tier subscribers will also soon be able to take advantage of up to 4K resolutions at 60 and 120 FPS thanks to NVIDIA’s Reflex tech. Last year, NVIDIA introduced Reflex to deliver 1080p 240 FPS gaming in the cloud, and now they are using the same methods to deliver higher frame rates in 4K for supported titles. A few of those games include Call of Duty: MWIII, CyberPunk 2077, Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Alan Wake 2.

With both Cloud G-SYNC and Reflex, members will feel as if they’re connected directly to GeForce NOW’s RTX 4080 SuperPODs, making their visual experiences smoother, clearer and more immersive than ever.

via the NVIDIA Blog

Also of note, GeForce NOW is also set to deliver 1440p streaming on Android devices, making phones and tablets that have display-out features a pocketable gaming rig on the go. With better keyboard/mouse support also on the way, the future of your game streaming may be in the palm of your hand.

Imagine hooking up your phone to your TV, streaming the latest AAA title (like The Finals) with a mouse/keyboard or controller. It would feel like a Nintendo Switch on steroids, and would cost you $0 extra in hardware over the phone you already carry around in your pocket. Though it sounds a bit too good to be true, I’m betting on NVIDIA, here, as their web-based gaming portal is incredibly good. I’d imagine 1440p on Android will be excellent as well.

GeForce NOW in Japan

Finally, NVIDIA is announcing an official launch of GeForce NOW in Japan this spring. And with launch will come servers equipped to deliver Ultimate Tier, too, so those in Japan will be able to take advantage of all the best game streaming right away. They join the ther 13 regions of the world in having high-quality game streaming at their fingertips, and I get the feeling this is only the beginning. And we can’t wait to see what all 2024 brings in the cloud gaming space.