Nvidia’s Grid Streams Games Faster than PlayStation Now

One of PC gaming's biggest hardware developers is releasing its own cloud-based, game-streaming service that will directly and wirelessly play PC titles on your Nvidia Shield.

Polygon reports that Nvidia Grid's upcoming cloud gaming service will be launching next week alongside its over-the-air update for the Nvidia Shield Tablet. The Nvidia Shield Portable will be getting access to the Grid service at an undisclosed, later date. Nvidia Grid will allow Shield users to stream PC games right onto the device via Cloud, offering optimal gameplay without the need for crazy long cords or having to move your tower somewhere. The Grid service will let you play PC games on your Shield tablet/handheld and broadcast it onto a different receiver screen than the ones hooked up to your tower.

"It's launching as a real service, but it's going to be free," said Nvidia senior product manager Andrew Fear. "If you have a Shield product, you'll be able to access it 100 percent for free."

The team at Nvidia has no plans to let this technology be available for third-party and non-Nvidia products. There will also be a price associated with the service, which will be revealed at a later date. Nvidia wants the Shield to openly compete with the PlayStation Now and it believes that, combined with the Grid service, its Shield products are openly better.

"We really do think of it as Netflix for games," said Fear. "We want to make it as simple as, 'Hey, I want to watch Breaking Bad,' or, 'I want to watch My Little Pony,' if that's what you're into — you log in to Netflix, you watch it. Here, we want to make it just the same way for games."

Nvidia will launch the Grid service on Nov. 18 and it will be available for free until June 30, 2015. This service will be available for the Nvidia Shield Tablet (the 32 GB version costs $299) and the Nvidia Shield Portable ($199). There is also a Shield Controller peripheral that costs $59.99. Buying the 32GB Shield Tablet will get you a Shield-optimized version of Half-Life 2 and Portal for free. There has yet to be any type of pricing model for Nvidia Grid, but there will be one announced in the future. Expect more than 40 noteworthy games such as Ultra Street Fighter 4, Batman: Arkham City, and Borderlands 2 available at launch with more being added to the list as time progresses.