Nvidia’s cloud gaming service, GeForce Now, can now be enjoyed on iOS devices.
On Thursday, the company launched a beta for GeForce Now that can be run on the Safari browser for Apple’s iOS operating system. “That means more than 5 million GeForce Now members can now access the latest experience by launching Safari from iPhone or iPad and visiting play.geforcenow.com,” Nvidia said in today’s announcement.
The caveat is you’ll need a gamepad, such as the Razer Kishi controller, to play games over the iOS beta. At the same time, keyboard-and-mouse-only games won’t be available “due to hardware limitations,” the company said.
By offering the iOS beta, Nvidia is promising the return of a hit game to iPhones and iPads: Epic Games’ Fortnite. Back in August, the title was pulled from the iOS App Store over a legal dispute between its developer, Epic Games and Apple. As a result, Fortnite players on iOS have been saddled with an older version of the game that can no longer receive updates.
“Alongside the amazing team at Epic Games, we’re working to enable a touch-friendly version of Fortnite,” Nvidia said. But in the meantime, the mouse-and-keyboard version of Fortnite won’t be available on GeForce Now. Expect the iOS Safari version to arrive soon, Nvidia added.
GeForce Now is also available on Google Chrome via a beta that's currently limited to Chromebooks. Since debuting in August, "we’ve seen over 10 percent of gameplay in the Chrome web-based client,” the company said.
Nvidia plans to expand the beta to other platforms, including Linux, PC, Mac, and Android. So soon you won’t have to download an app to run GeForce Now; instead, you’ll be able to do so through the Chrome browser.
“Stay tuned for updates as we approach a full launch early next year,” Nvidia added. To run GeForce Now, you’ll need a 15Mbps or higher internet connection. The service is currently free, but caps your cloud gaming sessions to one hour before you need to log out. If you pay $4.99 a month, you’ll be upgraded to the Founders Edition plan, which gives you priority access to Nvidia’s cloud servers and extended gaming sessions. Check out our review to learn more.