Shortly: GeForce Now joins the list of western products and services being pulled from Russia. Nvidia’s game streaming platform is being shut down in the country due to the “current circumstances” affecting the quality of services offered to users.
Nvidia was among many Western companies that halted shipments to Russia shortly after invading Ukraine earlier last year. Team Green continued to maintain its office in Russia after the suspension to support employees and their families, but ceased all activities in the country in October.
PC gamer reports that GeForce Now has been operating in Russia through a partner company since 2019 GFN.ru. It is one of several alliance partners that Nvidia uses to make its service available worldwide: LG U+ in Korea, Softbank in Japan, Abya in South American countries, etc.
GFN.ru has continued to operate GeForce Now since Nvidia pulled out of Russia, but the company announced in a blog post (via Overclockers.ru) that under the “current circumstances” it “cannot provide the quality of service” that meets its standards or that its users “expect and deserve”.
GeForce Now operations in Russia will cease when GFN.ru shuts down servers on October 1st, while purchasing long-term subscriptions will no longer be possible after September 1st. Subscribers with active subscriptions after closure will receive refunds. Countries like Belarus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan will also be affected by the shutdown
The sanctions against Russia are undoubtedly a major factor in the end of GeForce Now in the country. The service allows users to stream games using high-end Nvidia hardware, however, they must own the games in order to play them through the service.
Overclockers.ru also points to the low popularity of cloud gaming as another reason for the closure, pointing to some of its technical obstacles and the closure of Google Stadia.
We took a look at GeForce Now earlier this year ahead of the launch of the RTX 4080 tier – the Ultimate tier was still using an RTX 3080 back then. The results weren’t exactly impressive, but post-launch testing of the RTX 4080 hardware was showed some massive improvements.
A July poll found that in 2022, 69% of Russian gamers said they had played at least one pirated game, while 51% admitted they had pirated more games than in 2021.