• Together with rain, NVIDIA GeForce NOW will arrive in the first quarter of 2023.
• rain has said that it will make use of its local data centres.
• The service will be available as part of a limited beta programme before its wider commercial rollout.

As Google wraps up the short lived Stadia game streaming service, there are still game streaming services that persist such as Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Here in South Africa we’ve yet to enjoy those services owing to a lack of infrastructure to support cloud gaming. That has, however, seemingly changed as local internet service provider rain has partnered with NVIDIA to bring GeForce NOW to South Africa.

The service will be hosted on infrastructure at rain’s local data centres which should allow for the low latency needed for streaming games. Whether rain’s network is up to the task remains to be seen.

“We are extremely proud to partner with NVIDIA and bring cloud gaming to the fast-growing gaming market in South Africa. The ability to stream and enjoy the latest games on most devices, is a massive leap forward for the gaming community,” says rain chief executive officer, Brandon Leigh.

What makes cloud gaming particularly exciting in South Africa is that one doesn’t need a beefy PC to play AAA PC games. All you need is a screen, a controller or other input and an internet connection.

“Members can stream titles they already own from popular digital gaming stores including Steam, Epic, Ubisoft, Origin, even on under-powered devices,” rain explained in a press release.

Unfortunately we don’t know how much NVIDIA GeForce Now will cost. It’s also unclear whether the service will be available exclusively through rain. We’d think that rain would want to keep this service exclusive but let’s see how things roll out.

Speaking of roll out, rain is taking a measured approach to this service’s release. For one, it will only be launching a limited beta programme in the first quarter of 2023 with a commercial release scheduled thereafter.

If you are interested in this service you can head to this link to express your interest. There is limited space available according to rain so don’t dawdle, sign up.

There are still a number of questions to be answered regarding this offer but we’re rather excited to play Elden Ring on a budget smartphone.

As mentioned, Google has killed off Stadia with its official end of life set for 18th January 2022. Google said the service failed to gain the traction executives had hoped. Hopefully the entrance of GeForce NOW will have Microsoft eyeing a local launch as well. Microsoft does have a cloud presence in South Africa after all.