Nvidia revealed that its cloud gaming service, Nvidia GeForce Now, is coming to several new platforms in the future. We learned at CES 2025 that a GeForce Now app for Steam Deck is coming later this year, while browser support on Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S, Pico mixed reality headsets, and even Apple Vision Pro will also be coming later this month.
Nvidia GeForce Now is a service that lets players use Nvidia’s servers to stream games in their Steam library from higher-end PC hardware via cloud gaming. If you have a great internet collection but a lackluster PC or laptop for gaming, something like GeForce Now is a solid solution. Previously, GeForce Now was only available through PC, Mac, iOS, Android, and certain smart TVs from companies like Samsung, but this year Nvidia is committed to broadening its availability.
The Steam Deck app appears to be the furthest along in development, as it’s the one Nvidia detailed the most at CES 2025. It allows for cloud gaming at a 4K resolution and at 60 frames per second if players have a GeForce Now Ultimate subscription, are virtually accessing a Nvidia RTX 4080 GPU, and have their Steam Deck hooked up to a TV. A blog post from Nvidia claims that playing games via GeForce Now uses less processing power, extending the Steam Deck’s battery life while playing games at a higher resolution and frame rate than the Steam Deck might be capable of natively. The app will be released sometime later in 2025.
When GeForce Now update 2.0.70 rolls out later in January, the web browser version of the service will also become compatible with headsets from companies like Apple, Meta, and Pico, allowing players to stream gamepad-compatible titles. If you actively use GeForce Now, you’ll certainly have a lot more options when it comes to where to use it very soon.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.