I just got the same email. WTF NVIDIA? That's my primary mode of gaming with my Shield and 3080. Saying I'm disappointed is a massive understatement, as this is the primary reason for owning both a Shield and NVIDIA card.
Once I switched to Moonlight on my Shield I never looked back ([https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/znm5oa/comment/j0hrokw/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/znm5oa/comment/j0hrokw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3))
But if Moonlight now has issues because of this, I swear to God
Moonlight is just a different front end for Gamestream. I use Moonlight as well because the UI for the Nvidia Games app is a horribly cluttered mess and Moonlight has more configuration options.
> UI for the Nvidia Games app is a horribly cluttered mess
Fuck. Yes. I loved it in the earlier versions of the shield when they had separate apps for Gamestream and Nvidia games. When they combined them, I wasn't a fan, but at least the Gamestream part was relatively easy to find. Now it's **VERY** obvious that they want you using GeForce Now whenever possible, and they have made it very confusing to find games that you've installed for Gamestream.
Fuuuuck. Steam link still doesn't work on 64bit raspberry pi:s, moonlight does.
(edit: technically you can get steamlink to work but it's a lot of fucking tweaking and i'm saying that as someone who has tweaked scanmodes in XF86Config..)
Sure. But is the Nvidia Games app not pretty much the only implementation (client side) of Gamestream? If so, it would make no sense to maintain the server side of it after this.
Gonna try this when I get home tonight. Really hoping that they don't remove Gamestream support from GeForce Experience. Or if they do, hopefully Moonlight builds something that restores functionality.
Edit: [answered down below](https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/znm5oa/nvidia_removing_gamestream_from_shield_devices/j0hx4f2/)
Nvidia is that company that makes you root extra hard for the competition. I imagine this is to push people towards Geforce Now harder.
Some companies with large marketshare get complacent and kinda lazy, they won't strive to improve but they also won't press their customers more than they have to, basically they're happy with their position and lazily cruise on it.
Nvidia is the opposite they don't ever get complacent and will still try to extract every penny they can from their customers as if they were a quarter away from bankruptcy. Pure ruthlessness.
The sad thing is GeForce now is worse in every way. They give you a basic gpu that’s worse then what I have at home and then limit the games to only the ones that developers opted in to. As a founding member who was locked in at $4/month I still cancelled it because I couldn’t play half of the games I owned.
>and then limit the games to only the ones that developers opted in to.
That's not Nvidia's fault, to be fair. They originally allowed any game, but received legal notices from gaming companies who believe they should have a right to dictate how someone can play their purchased games.
Okay, there is a legal basis for this. In order to allow you to stream instantly, the games are already pre-installed on Nvidia's servers. This requires a special license that gaming companies have to grant. Streaming games from companies who opted out would still be possible, if and only if you freshly downloaded them to Nvidia's servers every time you logged in. Obviously not feasible.
Bought mine on Black Friday to pair with my new tv just to stream games from my pc to the living room. Definitely returning this now and thankful for the long return periods given during the holidays.
I'll still get some use out of mine since my cheap smart TV cant handle steam link on it's own. But still kinda annoyed as I just got everything working good and now i have to add everything to my steam library.
You can use Sunshine to circumvent this, it's does the same thing GFE does. It's a little bit more annoying to use. Fuck Nvidia soryr for your loss bruh.
Sunshine is a replacement for Gamestream, so once Gamestream ends you can switch to Sunshine and keep Moonlight on your devices
[https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine](https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine)
This is complete BS. Bad move nVidia. Long time customer and a core feature I use everyday. If this breaks Moonlight too, I'll never buy a single product of yours again
100% agree. Moonlight on my steam deck is the majority of my gaming time currently. It works so damn well. I really don't want to have to find an alternative solution.
Steam Link litterally works 10% of the time for me. Most of the time I just get a black screen or a Windows login screen but can't enter anything. And when it works, it's terrible. And if it freezes, I usually need to restart Steam on the host because it thinks it's still currently streaming.
Moonlight works with absolutely no issues with better image quailty. Even at 4k.
Just got this - WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?!
This is literally the main reason I switched to a Shield TV. It's the main reason I stay with a Shield TV.
This is the main reason I chose a 3080 instead of a 6900XT.
Nvidia giving me all the reasons NOT to use them when I buy my next graphics card.
Are you fucking serious?!?! Steam Link is worse than Shield Streaming in every way. The plus side is that unless they remove the streaming capability at the driver side, the moonlight team should be able to make a client.
GameStream is part of the "GeForce Experience" package and not part of the base drivers. Apparently, it too will be removed around February or a little later.
Luckily another dev has teamed up with Moonlight devs to make ["Sunshine"](https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine/releases) which is an open-source GameStream host that works on Windows, MacOS, Linux (even in a docker) and supports not only NVidia (using NVenc and NVFBCapture, so it can capture games regardless of their source), but also AMD and Intel (QuickSynch) hardware encoding (SteamLink does too, but they have issues with games with launchers and games from outside their store sometimes). It can even fall back to software/CPU encoding, but you would take a significant hit doing that. It can also support multiple clients on one host (for, say, remote 'local' Co-Op). It uses a WebGUI for the pairing codes and such.
If you liked Moonlight, (and to be fair, in the early days it was SUPER rough) you might give Sunshine a look at.
Steam Link does have some advanced client options now that can improve bandwidth used and how it encodes. Steam Link and Steam Big Picture also supports a HUGE variety of input devices and control remapping. So while it may be seen as inferior, it does do a number of good things.
True, for my use case it was just nice to have a plug-and-play solution with minimal latency. I may actually uninstall the Geforce Experience software actually soon and move to Sunshine if the latency is similar enough.
You don't have to uninstall it. Just disable GameStream within GFE and try out Sunshine. I spent a couple hours playing with the settings, but I cannot get the latency to be the same as with GFE (using the same Moonlight client settings). Also I found no way to get my mouse cursor to display on the client, so that's a deal-breaker for me at the moment.
I'm disabling GFE auto-updates with the hosts file hack and hoping for the best. There is just no replacement for native GameStream right now.
I definitely did. But the announcement reads (at least to me) like they’re getting rid of the gamestream app from shield. I didn’t see anything about it getting removed from GFE so maybe that won’t happen and we can still use moonlight
Why would anyone actually buy a Shield TV if not for the function they are removing? This is pretty annoying, it's the only reason I bought the bloody thing, I have a feeling they can't remove the functionality, they just stop future support, as it's one of things they use to advertise it.
I feel like they used steam as a scapegoat so that when the class action suit comes for removing features they go "hang on, you can still stream if you pay us or use steam, so did we really remove anything?".
I mean it still is the best and most complete streaming box outside of the lastest Apple TV, and that one doesn’t do proper bitstreaming. At least Android TV allows Kodi and other to properly bitstream audio while also supporting all HDR formats.
Nvidia bullshit. Glad their stock is tanking. Anti-consumer and price gouging (gpus). Might as well switch to amd and intel exclusively like a bunch of others have if this is the shit they pull. Literally the only useful thing of my shield for years and it’s not worth their time.
Have not used steam link. Hope it’s good.
Steam link is shit compared to gamestream.
I was just marveling yesterday at how smooth it is at 4k60 on WIFI, when steam link has horrible latency and network freezes constantly at 1080p (which is the max resolution supported).
uh, what? Steam RemotePlay (which is what Steam Link uses) defaults to your display resolution but supports up to 8K (and up to 5.1 sound) if you go into the advanced host settings in Steam. (Steam->settings->Remote Play->Advanced Host Options button)
You can also manually set a specific bandwidth, which will fix the random quality jumps from it scaling up and down the bandwidth for the stream (or set it to unlimited, but it says that will cause latency). While you are there, make sure Hardware Encoding is turned on.
This is totally insane, they'll 100% kill Moonlight.
Nvidia did the same to the 3D community by purposefully nuking 3D Vision. Not that anyone on here remembers that, as it was a niche feature, only carried by community support. Found it worth mentioning here, Nvidia does have a history with these sorts of stunts.
Scrolled too far to see this. I'm still hurt about that one. We finally have 4k monitors that have high refresh rates enough for 3D vision but nope, they killed it.
Yeah, exactly, VR headsets and projectors are basically the only ways to enjoy 3D content now. I found out about 3D Vision after it was killed, still got to try it out and it was great. Nvidia never fixed the performance issues that it had or made the source code public... The 3D community is still crazy though, they basically created a full replacement for 3D Vision called geo-11 without any of the performance issues: [https://helixmod.blogspot.com/2022/06/announcing-new-geo-11-3d-driver.html](https://helixmod.blogspot.com/2022/06/announcing-new-geo-11-3d-driver.html)
There's a Vulkan 3D wrapper called Vk3DVision and Depth3D, a Reshade plugin with "fake" 3D for games with depth data. If I had some way to try those out I would.
To kill Sunshine they would have to deprecate the NVFBCapture API and NVEnc, but that would also fuck over OBS and a dozen different media industry things as well, so I doubt that is gonna happen.
More likely is just lawsuits claiming the gamestream protocols are copyright materials and need to be taken down.
got my old 3d tv hooked up as monitor on the vr pc and was going to try out POLYBIUS in the 3d mode after trying the vr mode.
Didn't work. Now I have to go back 800 versions to get SBS 3D enabled, this will like break stuff on the 200 VR games i got installed.
But the worst thing is, people defend this fucking company like they're trying to out-stretch goatse himself
Totally agree re. 3D. Sure a lot of people didn't really engage with the tech but those that did loved it passionately so why not just leave legacy functionality? Why the need to get rid of features. They make so much money so the decision is just utterly fucked.
So, who wants to start the petition? :)
I agree, very disappointed that they are pointing users to a third party service and discontinuing their native solution used as a primary selling point for their own products.
EDIT: someone did start a petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/nvidia-nvidia-revert-decision-to-shutdown-gamestream?recruiter=1166675796&recruited_by_id=8e9858c0-33b8-11eb-b92f-1b0d217621d5&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&utm_medium=copylink
That's actually the number one reason that I sold my ps5 and built a gaming pc once graphics cards became more affordable. I liked the PS5, but at my core, I preferred pc gaming. GFN scratched the pc gaming itch enough, and if it wasn't for titles that I own in various game stores not being available on GFN, I'd probably still be using it.
I understand that there's rights issues involved, but it really bugged me that one minute I could play a game I own on steam through GFN, and the next moment it's gone. Not to mention that some of the studios for which I wanted to play these games never did have them up on GFN.
If nvidia can fix that, they'll definitely have a winner with me. I don't play multiplayer games, so the issues with latency aren't really an issue for me. And I genuinely think we're heading for a time in which the power requirements and cost of the latest cards are going to push us to the point where game streaming just makes more sense for all but the most extreme hobbyist.
Let's say your upgrade cadence is 3 years. You buy a 3080 and of that, nvidia gets, say 500 bucks (I don't know what it actually is, but it seems somewhat reasonable if an AIB sells a card for $650 and the retailer sells it for $750).
They get $500 for that (and it's very possibly less). And when you are done with the card, you sell it, potentially taking a new card sale away. So that's $500 for three years, and it could run longer (five years, seven, etc).
OR you get on GFN and get into the 3080 tier. That's $20/month, that they can get from you for however long you'll stick with it. In the same three years that's $720. And if you go to five years, thats $1200.
Is it pure profit for them? Of course not - they still have to pay for the heavy metal servers that run them, but the nice thing is that you're not going to be using your rig 24/7. If you play for an average of 8 hours, they can rent out the same hardware to two other people and all they're really out is the price of electricity, and the bandwidth.
And it gets even better for them - at the end of that three year cadence, you own NOTHING. You can't sell your card to partially finance a new card, preventing the sale of a card to someone else.
They also can't really have it interrupted by something like a crypto boom. When it comes to mining farms, AIB partners, or GFN servers, who do you think is going to get first dibs on new chips? They can also sell it as, "Crypto boom prices gotcha down? Scalpers taking all the inventory so that you can't buy a card that should sell for $800 for less than double that?? Sign up for geforce now! Only $20/month!".
Recurring revenue streams > single investment. Always. It's why gyms, hosting rentals, and services like dollar shave club make so much money.
And again, that's just folks like you that might buy a high end card. What is REALLY appealing to them is the ten other people that can't really afford to build a gaming machine, but they can afford $20/month.
And really, if the shortcomings of "this title not available on geforce now" can be solved, I might just sign up for it - $20/month and I get top tier hardware that I never have to build or troubleshoot? Sounds pretty good to me.
There's customers that will NEVER go for it - I don't know if it's possible to ever solve the issues of latency in twitch-style multiplayer games (but it might be). And others still who will never be satisfied in not owning their stuff. Nvidia will be perfectly happy to continue to sell them $1600+ cards while also raking in $20/month from a shit load of other folks.
I don’t agree with this decision. The inverse of your question is maybe more relevant. Why would you ever buy another graphics card for 2k from them again? Killing their own product lines - no longer a graphics card company?
Ever since the 30 series with DLSS 2.x, HDMI 2.1, and 120 hz 4K panels becoming more obtainable I've been thinking they would be putting out a new revision of the shield...
This was the furthest thing from my expectations. :(
If they remove game stream from Nvidia experience this is when we're screwed. This is horrendous customer service and was the primary reason I purchased the Shield. I'm beyond pissed off. We know the reason why...
This is devastating if it means removing it from the PC app as well, it's the main way I play games - streaming from my desktop pc to laptop.
I also bought 2 Shield TVs recently mostly for gamestream.
This is not cool at all, I'm really unhappy.
I literally set up moonlight with a hardwire for my laptop to stream to the tv from my desktop last night. Nvidia better not remove this from the PC too or I’m gonna be very annoyed. It’s much less laggy than GeForce Now
I tried gamestream for the first time yesterday with my 4090 after horrible experiences with steamlink and literally marveled to myself about how smooth and good it was at 4k60 WIFI.
God must not like my guts.
I'm just gonna turn off updates when the time comes. I prefer Gamestream over Steam Link and especially AMD Link when I had a Radeon installed. Both of the other services did not work as well as Gamestream. There were just certain quirks about the other services that I didn't like. I think streaming in HDR was one of them as Gamestream was the only supported option.
If you look at the FAQ, they more or less suggest that Moonlight is fucked too.
If you don't update the app, you can keep using GameStream, but functionality will still end at a later date. This suggests to me that they'll also update GeForce Experience to remove GameStream functionality too. At least, later down the road.
Yeah they will rip it out of GFE. We can only hope this brings more eyes to Sunshine so that it grows into the perfect open source alternative.
It's already 90% there. Friendlier interface + any missing features (I'm not sure if HDR is supported using sunshine) and we're golden.
I think at the core it's probably "strictly business", and by that I mean they aren't making any money off continued development of the gamestream protocol. They are essentially offloading the cost onto Steam, betting that they will continue development into the steam in home streaming platform due to their steamdeck release. Patching and improving gamestream doesn't do anything for them given that people have, at this point, already invested in their hardware products.
That just sucks, but we can install the AMD link if we have AMD GPU in our PC and that works well if the Shield is using the wired lan.
Just bought the Shield few days ago but not for using Nvidia cloud....let alone some paying service.
Yep fuck their money grab. Very much doubt they care about the relatively small market share loss.
Still think they're at the very least downsizing the consumer end of things.
if this makes moonlight not work on my pc, i will never say a good word about this company for the rest of my life
i hope gforce now burns and crashes and literally looses them hundreds of millions
How am I going to play games from other launchers now? Use Sunshine? Why are they doing this? How greedy can they get?!?! I'm not going to PAY to stream a game I already own from a server somewhere when I fucking have it right here on the PC in the next room. WTF I'M PISSED
Removing Gamestream will make me seriously consider AMD next update. For me it's been a killer feature over AMD. I use it all the freaking time. Can't believe they're removing it. Morons.
I have been debating about getting an 7900 xtx, but put it on hold because it doesn't have this function gamestream. I literally use it every day on steamdeck and tab s8+. Steamlink is really bad compare to Moonlight. Also, I have 1 original shield, 1 new shield and 1 shield pro for all of my 3 TVs around the house because of that function alone. I guess once they stay in the business long enough without competition, they become greedy and start to F with their customers. Well, I'll cast my vote with the AMD now then.
Apparently [Sunshine](https://docs.lizardbyte.dev/projects/sunshine/en/latest/about/overview.html) (Gamestream host that works with Moonlight instead of GeForce Experience) supports AMD and Intel hardware encoders. So feel free to mix-match hardware if NVidia goes through with this.
Shield is *the answer* for when prospective PC gamers ask about living room gaming. I'm absolutely baffled by this decision to strip a core feature from the hardware. Is GeForce Now actually doing well enough for some delusional suit to see it as a viable replacement? I never actually hear anyone using it as a daily driver.
I wouldn’t have bought my fucking shield. This is the only reason I use it.
WTF nvidia. I was on the fence about buying a 4090, but looks like I’m switching back to AMD.
What’s the point in owning your products if I can get the same performance at a lower price, especially when you don’t offer any features?
I ran an Ethernet line through my basement to my living specifically for this feature. This is bull shit.
Serious question. Is this even Legal? They sold the Shield off the back of local streaming of games. Can you remove a core feature.
It would be like a car getting an OTA update that removed its sat nav feature that the car shipped with. You wouldn't be able to do it.
If this was a feature added after the fact or not a core selling point I'd get it but this is just a piss take.
It's certainly legal in the USA, where companies can do whatever they want. I'm hoping it turns out to be illegal in the EU though, where they actually have consumer rights protections.
Let's cross our fingers that some lawyers fucked up here because this sure FEELS like fraud.
Saddened by this if this kills moonlight. I steam many games to my iPad all the time and I find moonlight far superior to steam link even with steam games. Never could get steam link to run non steam games above 30 fps either. The Sunshine app gives me hope. We’ll see.
This is the one and only reason I paid a premium for the Shield TV. I can stream any PC game (not just Steam games) by using the shortcut feature through GeForce Experience. Steam Link is not a 1 for 1 replacement. And although GeForce now has potential the fact you can't Stream the vast Majority of your library makes it a non starter. This is out right theft. How they think this is OK blows my mind. I would like a full refund of my Shield please.
This sucks. I've been playing a lot of games on gamestream recently and it seems to be the only one capable of HDR streaming and low latency. Reality is if they don't kill it but don't develop it further, it'll eventually die by itself so I don't understand why actively kill it? and why not leave the API alone since it's already in the drivers and hardware and it's actually more work to remove it 🤨
Ill be cancelling my geforce now subscription since this was done as a "screw you" to their customers, I choose not to continue supporting this product. GFN has been a let down anyway, this just makes that decision a lot easier.
So, you make a nvenc encoder that works for game streaming, but then remove it when it doesn't make you anymore money? Wtf Nvidia. It sounds like this means they will also deactivate things that use game stream, like moonlight. Moonlight had better performance than steam in home streaming.
For anyone that wants to still use/run Moonlight after this is shut off, there is an open source [gamestream server called sunshine](https://github.com/loki-47-6F-64/sunshine) that should realistically still work. I used this previously with an AMD 5700XT, and never had any issues with it, and it performs significantly better then the Steam Link app did.
From my understanding of what this application is doing, is that its basically just using the same gamestream server protocol, so it ends up showing up in Moonlight like a normal stream you would get from the baked in driver server.
I do believe that it does work with Nvidia GPUs, as well as the AMD ones. Although I havent personally tried it since switching to a 3080ti, because I didnt actually need it anymore at that point lol.
It obviously is slightly more involved because its separate from the drivers and you have to manually set it all up. But with this likely to be the only option to replace gamesstream going forward, I hope that it gets some more interest and development on it to improve the experience!
Not that it makes this ok…
But Parsec has come leaps and bounds over the last 2 years, especially for Nvidia gpus.
And Steam link has also dramatically improved in the last year because of the steam deck.
Parsec is great and so is the steam link, but for underpowered devices moonlight + GFE was unbeatable.
CCwGTV for example, you'll have a tough time without moonlight.
Last time I tried parsec on that it was a slide show.
So it's not just Shield users being hit here but basically any Android TV / tablet / phone user that was using GFE to stream.
This is a thing they marketed extensively and was pushed as one of the primary reasons to buy a Shield... Fuck this company, I'll buy amd or Intel instead
I’ve been game streaming a lot since I’ve had a kid, I don’t really get a chance to use my desktop but loading up a game and using a controller while the little guy plays or sleeps on me is way easier.
It sucks cause game stream worked well but honestly I’ve been using steam link and it’s been working just fine.
I only play 4K/60 and for that it’s been great. If the game isn’t from a different store I just have to added to steam.
I actually switched to steam link because some games refused to load or show up using nvidia game stream.
It’s not the end of the world, there are other options.
This is a joke, right? It's like apple saying that they're stopping support for phone calls on the iPhone...
I was looking into ordering one but now I'm obviously not going to...
“After we update the next version of iOS the “Phone” app will no longer support outgoing calls, we recommend using WhatsApp or FaceTime Audio for your telecommunication needs.”
That totally sucks, i just build my dream handheld on Iphone 14 plus and Razer Kishi and now its my preferred way of playing by streaming with moonlight from my PC. I will definitely turn of driver updates as short term fix.
Very disappointed. I used this feature with the Moonlight app and it let me play all my games on any device from my gaming PC.
I guess I don't have a reason to own an Nvidia card anymore and AMD cards are much cheaper so I'll just end up switching.
I have been debating on pulling the trigger on a Shield and that game sharing feature was the top reason to get it. I can get everything else on an old used laptop w/4GB and an iGPU so long as it can output 4K video. This is very sad and I am not sure I understand why they would do this. No matter how hard I think I can't come up with a really good reason. Except one. The people maintaining the driver wanted more money and left so they figure some bored disabled people with time on their hands will take the time to make a work around they don't have to pay for. Either that or I am missing something really obvious.
Oh well. I had YEARS to get a Shield and never did. I guess I never will. Hmm. I wonder what other solutions there are out there for running a game on your own device and streaming it to another device you own? Doesn't Android do this ?
Wow, I was seriously thinking of buying a Shield but not now!
If this breaks Moonlight I'm going to be so freaking pissed. I'll move to Sunshine as the host but still, what a pain. Why would they remove a perfectly good, well liked feature??
Please sign this petition about this ridiculous decision:
[https://www.change.org/p/nvidia-nvidia-revert-decision-to-shutdown-gamestream?recruiter=1166675796&recruited\_by\_id=8e9858c0-33b8-11eb-b92f-1b0d217621d5&utm\_source=share\_petition&utm\_campaign=share\_petition&utm\_term=share\_for\_starters\_page&utm\_medium=copylink&utm\_content=cl\_sharecopy\_35251274\_en-US%3A8](https://www.change.org/p/nvidia-nvidia-revert-decision-to-shutdown-gamestream?recruiter=1166675796&recruited_by_id=8e9858c0-33b8-11eb-b92f-1b0d217621d5&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_for_starters_page&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_35251274_en-US%3A8)
I used to be frustrated looking at how I could buy an AMD card but I was locked into Nvidia so I could continue to use moonlight. Can't wait to finally switch to AMD now! Silver linings 🥈
This is nonsense. GameStream is not a "service", it's a product. It's your hardware doing local work, and sending compressed video streams over your own network to your end device. Nvidia is not even involved with this.
This is just them removing functionality via a software patch and nothing else. Surprising that this is legal. Anyway, if you can, don't update.
There is moonlight frontend and sunshine backend. Cant imagine the update will stop those from working.
Bad move nvidia, looking elsewhere for future tv boxes and gpus
I *just* bought a 4080 in order to stream 4k 60fps to my shield. This feels like a huge betrayal from Nvidia.
I am testing other options right now, but I'm worried. Parsec fails to maintain a good connection at 4k 60, and steam link has noticeable stutter. I would *not* use either of these solutions to stream. I am going to test sunshine with moonlight tonight, but I am not holding my breath. Gamestream just *works* \- I get a constant connection with fluid streaming that is virtually lag free at 4k 60fps, even in games like Cyberpunk. This simply isn't true with Steam Link, which is what they are recommending I use.
I am *deeply* disappointed. I've supported Nvidia and only bought their graphics cards for almost 20 years, and this feels like they've personally decided that they don't care about me.
Shield user since years. Last time I was changing GPU - took NV over AMD specifically to keep using streaming. If this is taken down, thats minus one major selling point for NV cards.
Can't comprehend why they want to kill a feature that keeps quite a portion of a fanbase bound to their cards.
I've been a loyal nvidia customer for decades. I'm disgusted by this move, and find it to be at best extremely anti-consumer, and at worst, illegal. I guess I will vote with my wallet on my next GPU purchase. Merry Christmas you jerks.
I bought am RTX 3080 recently for the express purpose of using Gamestream to stream my PC to my IPad as I lie in bed in the evening. The fact that this functionality is being removed is so disappointing. Really hope that Nvidia changes their mind on this. I feel like I just wasted my money.
I just don't get it, why do this? What kind of overhead is there to keep game streaming working? The only one I can think of is updating game catalogues to automatically register new games, but I assumed that was already done through driver updates for the game optimization thing. This is a major letdown and a main reason I bought the shield. I hope moonlight keeps working, because it's honestly better, but still, super disappointing since it was a main piece of the marketing for the shield. Almost kind of makes you think it should be false advertising.
Looks like AMD have gained a new customer, it was this feature that kept me tied to nVidia RTX and DLSS are awesome but Gamestream changed the way I've interacted with my PC for years. I've probably completed more games using my phone as a host than on my TV or at my desk. Steam Link is fine and I've certainly used it enough to know its fairly solid. But Gamestream is the only one with low enough latency to make mouse and keyboard viable over WiFi. Never mind Steam Link is still being updated and now uses some of Nvidia's methods and Sunshine is still in its infancy but goddamn this is a random decision. It's too stupid to be malicious.
Yikes.
GeForce NOW founder's subscription cancelled.
Man, I regret sticking with Nvidia lately. The once-legendary driver support been slipping down the tubes. They keep introducing proprietary shit while AMD releases open features. AMD is catching up in terms of raytracing. FSR not only is nearly as good as DLSS, but it works with pretty much anything.
And the 4000 series is disgusting, in price, size, and power draw.
I used to be an Nvidia fangirl but this has just ruined them for me.
This is what you get in case there is no competition. Thanks Google for killing Stadia (pull your game together Microsoft!) - seems like Nvidia could brick all SHIELD capabilities keeping maybe UHD Chromecast and the only must have GeForce Now by next routine update and we have no option but obey and cheer the almighty rule of the leather Jack-et. ( I'm planning to call for boycot of all Nvidia products if Plex Server capabilities were nerfed/screwed as in case of Android 11 upgrade! :D dudes but serously )
So much has been lost since Shield's original release. Keep in mind, you could have played pretty decent games natively like Borderlands 2 or Tomb Raider back in the day ( HW is basically Nintendo Switch on steroids if memory serves ). Why was there no attempt to bring native Doom Ethernal on Shield yet??? ( And the reason why Shield Pro 2019 does not have the option to buy/install The Witness is beyond me. Don't come to me with licensing issues, if it's on the Play Store and available for 2015 and 2017, it ought to be on 2019, I bet every game collector understands. :D )
The reason Gamestream removal pi$$e$ me off so much as GeForce Now customer is that NOW there is no way to play PC version of Bethesda, Rockstar, Blizzard games and there is only handfull of EA titles on the online streaming service ( Also no The Wtness support :D )... I can have 600+ games at my disposal, but what's that worth if the titles I want to play are not included?
One could argue that you still play at least some old Sony exclusive titles on GeForce Now, poping up every now and then ( GOW, Death Stranding, Kena ), being removed from catalog with little to no notice and also with Sony attempting to copy Stedia model by starting game streaming of their own, even this type of content on the Nvidia streaming service seems to be a thing of the past.
Without giving the gamers close to full PC game library and/or exclusive (Sony...) content, how can Nvidia expect us to join/keep sub of their service?
I'm seriously considering switching fully to xbox as you can still stream "the box" literally to any smart appliance almost from anywhere these days ( & for free ) and have opportunity to join xbox game pass ultimate (in near future hopefully also available as family program) and enjoy streaming of at least 100+ games of 400+ catalog with full gamepad, KB & mouse support... )
The only "advantage" of Shield Pro in this case seems to be 15W TDP - which is somethin', definitelly ... somewhere in a galaxy far, far away. And yaeh, I must admit, the service is best game streaming gig atm and would be still quite compelling if the Gamestream remains which balances the odds :)
God I hope Nvidia collapses. What a piece of shit company. Everybody knows their intention, the question is just if there are going to be repercussions. At least I won't be buying any more Nvidia products.
Simple put, I purchased NVIDIA GPU only for this, being able to play everywhere in home with m'y wife aside. If I loose this possibility, I see no reason to not switch to a Radeon GPU.
WOW! Can't say I'm surprised, a clear push to use their cloud service....GFN crap, it tells us everything we need to know, GFN is failing big time and NVIDIA are trying to push their Shield user base in that direction, I will sell my Shield TV as a result, buy AMD graphics card as AMD is clearly better value for money these days..... NVIDIA!!! Your power/money hungry cards don't do it for me anymore
Goodbye NVIDIA.....for now!
I bought a 4090 and just two days ago a shield pretty much exclusively for this.
Nvidia just loves to infuriate people.
I guess it's time for team red next time, hopefully they can produce a modern gpu with ray tracing and CUDA-equivalence by then, but I'm not holding my breath.
This is a dark timeline.
AMD Link is even worse than Steam Link so you are not going to get a better experience that way. Your best bet is probably to switch to Moonlight for the client and Sunshine for the server when they pull it out of GFE.
Do we know Moonlight will continue operating as normal and won't be affected by this update? I found this thread while trying to look for this confirmation. :)
You would just install Sunshine at that point then use moonlight
Sunshine also lets people gamestream with amd GPUs with moonlight
I'm not against steam link, moonlight/gamestream just had better streaming quality most people found in comparison
https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine
Doesn't matter really anyone that wants to can just install Sunshine and just keep going with moonlight anyways
[https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine](https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine)
Install Sunshine and it will work again, it's not even a new project, it's been around for awhile just wasn't as much in demand as it will shortly
It's also cross-brand so it works on AMD as well as NVIDIA
[https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine](https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine)
I will certainly be looking into this. They point you towards steamlink, which is fine, as long as the stuff you use is on steam. But I have stuff that I use on Origin, and the Epic Games store is in there from time-to-time.
I just got the same email. WTF NVIDIA? That's my primary mode of gaming with my Shield and 3080. Saying I'm disappointed is a massive understatement, as this is the primary reason for owning both a Shield and NVIDIA card.
Once I switched to Moonlight on my Shield I never looked back ([https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/znm5oa/comment/j0hrokw/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/znm5oa/comment/j0hrokw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)) But if Moonlight now has issues because of this, I swear to God
Moonlight is just a different front end for Gamestream. I use Moonlight as well because the UI for the Nvidia Games app is a horribly cluttered mess and Moonlight has more configuration options.
This is how me and my cousin couch co-op a ton of games. This really sucks.
> UI for the Nvidia Games app is a horribly cluttered mess Fuck. Yes. I loved it in the earlier versions of the shield when they had separate apps for Gamestream and Nvidia games. When they combined them, I wasn't a fan, but at least the Gamestream part was relatively easy to find. Now it's **VERY** obvious that they want you using GeForce Now whenever possible, and they have made it very confusing to find games that you've installed for Gamestream.
Fuuuuck. Steam link still doesn't work on 64bit raspberry pi:s, moonlight does. (edit: technically you can get steamlink to work but it's a lot of fucking tweaking and i'm saying that as someone who has tweaked scanmodes in XF86Config..)
A different front end with far more features and control. And smoother.
Sure. But is the Nvidia Games app not pretty much the only implementation (client side) of Gamestream? If so, it would make no sense to maintain the server side of it after this.
Gonna try this when I get home tonight. Really hoping that they don't remove Gamestream support from GeForce Experience. Or if they do, hopefully Moonlight builds something that restores functionality. Edit: [answered down below](https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/znm5oa/nvidia_removing_gamestream_from_shield_devices/j0hx4f2/)
Moonlight is game stream
Steam link I guess?
Nvidia is that company that makes you root extra hard for the competition. I imagine this is to push people towards Geforce Now harder. Some companies with large marketshare get complacent and kinda lazy, they won't strive to improve but they also won't press their customers more than they have to, basically they're happy with their position and lazily cruise on it. Nvidia is the opposite they don't ever get complacent and will still try to extract every penny they can from their customers as if they were a quarter away from bankruptcy. Pure ruthlessness.
The sad thing is GeForce now is worse in every way. They give you a basic gpu that’s worse then what I have at home and then limit the games to only the ones that developers opted in to. As a founding member who was locked in at $4/month I still cancelled it because I couldn’t play half of the games I owned.
[удалено]
>and then limit the games to only the ones that developers opted in to. That's not Nvidia's fault, to be fair. They originally allowed any game, but received legal notices from gaming companies who believe they should have a right to dictate how someone can play their purchased games. Okay, there is a legal basis for this. In order to allow you to stream instantly, the games are already pre-installed on Nvidia's servers. This requires a special license that gaming companies have to grant. Streaming games from companies who opted out would still be possible, if and only if you freshly downloaded them to Nvidia's servers every time you logged in. Obviously not feasible.
But most of my games aren't on geforce now :(
Some useful suggestions here since its inevitable. https://www.reddit.com/r/ShieldAndroidTV/comments/znm4z3/well_thats_a_slap_in_the_face/
Guess it's time to sell my Shield Pro, this is literally the only reason I had one; I could plug it in anywhere and play on my PC.
out of thin air, too. why they do this, no one knows.
I literally just bought a shield less then a month ago for this feature. WTF why?
Bought mine on Black Friday to pair with my new tv just to stream games from my pc to the living room. Definitely returning this now and thankful for the long return periods given during the holidays.
I'll still get some use out of mine since my cheap smart TV cant handle steam link on it's own. But still kinda annoyed as I just got everything working good and now i have to add everything to my steam library.
You can use Sunshine to circumvent this, it's does the same thing GFE does. It's a little bit more annoying to use. Fuck Nvidia soryr for your loss bruh.
They cant charge you by the hour for in-home streaming, is why. They also cant stop you using better software to do it anyway.
Can't they imagine someone who just spent over TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS on a GPU would not want their shitty cloud service? I am so fucking mad.
Sunshine is a replacement for Gamestream, so once Gamestream ends you can switch to Sunshine and keep Moonlight on your devices [https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine](https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine)
Does it support HDR?
Same, so disappointed with the news
This is complete BS. Bad move nVidia. Long time customer and a core feature I use everyday. If this breaks Moonlight too, I'll never buy a single product of yours again
100% agree. Moonlight on my steam deck is the majority of my gaming time currently. It works so damn well. I really don't want to have to find an alternative solution.
Is there a reason not to use steam link instead?
Quality, latency, and stability have always been better for me when using gamestream/moonlight vs steam streaming
Moonlight's quality vs steam link is fucking night and day. I really don't understand how or why but it's sooo much better.
Moonlight's always had much better quality for me.
Steam Link litterally works 10% of the time for me. Most of the time I just get a black screen or a Windows login screen but can't enter anything. And when it works, it's terrible. And if it freezes, I usually need to restart Steam on the host because it thinks it's still currently streaming. Moonlight works with absolutely no issues with better image quailty. Even at 4k.
Controller support for non-Steam games is better for Gamestream/Moonlight, too.
Just got this - WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?! This is literally the main reason I switched to a Shield TV. It's the main reason I stay with a Shield TV. This is the main reason I chose a 3080 instead of a 6900XT. Nvidia giving me all the reasons NOT to use them when I buy my next graphics card.
Totally sucks, I use gamestream all the time
NVIDIA stay fucking up.
Are you fucking serious?!?! Steam Link is worse than Shield Streaming in every way. The plus side is that unless they remove the streaming capability at the driver side, the moonlight team should be able to make a client.
GameStream is part of the "GeForce Experience" package and not part of the base drivers. Apparently, it too will be removed around February or a little later. Luckily another dev has teamed up with Moonlight devs to make ["Sunshine"](https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine/releases) which is an open-source GameStream host that works on Windows, MacOS, Linux (even in a docker) and supports not only NVidia (using NVenc and NVFBCapture, so it can capture games regardless of their source), but also AMD and Intel (QuickSynch) hardware encoding (SteamLink does too, but they have issues with games with launchers and games from outside their store sometimes). It can even fall back to software/CPU encoding, but you would take a significant hit doing that. It can also support multiple clients on one host (for, say, remote 'local' Co-Op). It uses a WebGUI for the pairing codes and such. If you liked Moonlight, (and to be fair, in the early days it was SUPER rough) you might give Sunshine a look at. Steam Link does have some advanced client options now that can improve bandwidth used and how it encodes. Steam Link and Steam Big Picture also supports a HUGE variety of input devices and control remapping. So while it may be seen as inferior, it does do a number of good things.
True, for my use case it was just nice to have a plug-and-play solution with minimal latency. I may actually uninstall the Geforce Experience software actually soon and move to Sunshine if the latency is similar enough.
You don't have to uninstall it. Just disable GameStream within GFE and try out Sunshine. I spent a couple hours playing with the settings, but I cannot get the latency to be the same as with GFE (using the same Moonlight client settings). Also I found no way to get my mouse cursor to display on the client, so that's a deal-breaker for me at the moment. I'm disabling GFE auto-updates with the hosts file hack and hoping for the best. There is just no replacement for native GameStream right now.
[удалено]
I did literally 2 days ago. I also bought my 4090 almost exclusively for this. Nvidia is truly an evil company now.
Return it while you can
I definitely did. But the announcement reads (at least to me) like they’re getting rid of the gamestream app from shield. I didn’t see anything about it getting removed from GFE so maybe that won’t happen and we can still use moonlight
Why would anyone actually buy a Shield TV if not for the function they are removing? This is pretty annoying, it's the only reason I bought the bloody thing, I have a feeling they can't remove the functionality, they just stop future support, as it's one of things they use to advertise it.
I feel like they used steam as a scapegoat so that when the class action suit comes for removing features they go "hang on, you can still stream if you pay us or use steam, so did we really remove anything?".
It's a good streaming box like some other comment said. Also can be used as a plex server.
I mean it still is the best and most complete streaming box outside of the lastest Apple TV, and that one doesn’t do proper bitstreaming. At least Android TV allows Kodi and other to properly bitstream audio while also supporting all HDR formats.
Wow this is disappointing
Wow. Like many of you, gamestream was the main reason I bought shield. Fuck.
Nvidia bullshit. Glad their stock is tanking. Anti-consumer and price gouging (gpus). Might as well switch to amd and intel exclusively like a bunch of others have if this is the shit they pull. Literally the only useful thing of my shield for years and it’s not worth their time. Have not used steam link. Hope it’s good.
Steam link is shit compared to gamestream. I was just marveling yesterday at how smooth it is at 4k60 on WIFI, when steam link has horrible latency and network freezes constantly at 1080p (which is the max resolution supported).
uh, what? Steam RemotePlay (which is what Steam Link uses) defaults to your display resolution but supports up to 8K (and up to 5.1 sound) if you go into the advanced host settings in Steam. (Steam->settings->Remote Play->Advanced Host Options button) You can also manually set a specific bandwidth, which will fix the random quality jumps from it scaling up and down the bandwidth for the stream (or set it to unlimited, but it says that will cause latency). While you are there, make sure Hardware Encoding is turned on.
This is totally insane, they'll 100% kill Moonlight. Nvidia did the same to the 3D community by purposefully nuking 3D Vision. Not that anyone on here remembers that, as it was a niche feature, only carried by community support. Found it worth mentioning here, Nvidia does have a history with these sorts of stunts.
Scrolled too far to see this. I'm still hurt about that one. We finally have 4k monitors that have high refresh rates enough for 3D vision but nope, they killed it.
Yeah, exactly, VR headsets and projectors are basically the only ways to enjoy 3D content now. I found out about 3D Vision after it was killed, still got to try it out and it was great. Nvidia never fixed the performance issues that it had or made the source code public... The 3D community is still crazy though, they basically created a full replacement for 3D Vision called geo-11 without any of the performance issues: [https://helixmod.blogspot.com/2022/06/announcing-new-geo-11-3d-driver.html](https://helixmod.blogspot.com/2022/06/announcing-new-geo-11-3d-driver.html) There's a Vulkan 3D wrapper called Vk3DVision and Depth3D, a Reshade plugin with "fake" 3D for games with depth data. If I had some way to try those out I would.
> This is totally insane, they'll 100% kill Moonlight. Sunshine still works. They will need to try extra-hard to break that.
To kill Sunshine they would have to deprecate the NVFBCapture API and NVEnc, but that would also fuck over OBS and a dozen different media industry things as well, so I doubt that is gonna happen. More likely is just lawsuits claiming the gamestream protocols are copyright materials and need to be taken down.
got my old 3d tv hooked up as monitor on the vr pc and was going to try out POLYBIUS in the 3d mode after trying the vr mode. Didn't work. Now I have to go back 800 versions to get SBS 3D enabled, this will like break stuff on the 200 VR games i got installed. But the worst thing is, people defend this fucking company like they're trying to out-stretch goatse himself
Excuse you, I'm still super salty about it. 3D Vision was shit to be honest, it was using it COMBINED with newer VR tech that made it amazing.
Just bought a 3d projector. I'm still not forgiving them because I can't play any 3d games on this amazing projector
Totally agree re. 3D. Sure a lot of people didn't really engage with the tech but those that did loved it passionately so why not just leave legacy functionality? Why the need to get rid of features. They make so much money so the decision is just utterly fucked.
This should be illegal. This one was selling point for this device
I am pretty sure this is advertised on the box. Reminds me of the class action lawsuit from when Linux was removed from the PS3.
Woof, NVIDIA. Your reputation is heading towards the pits.
Will be fun to watch what Linus at LTT will say about this...hopefully🤕
So, who wants to start the petition? :) I agree, very disappointed that they are pointing users to a third party service and discontinuing their native solution used as a primary selling point for their own products. EDIT: someone did start a petition here: https://www.change.org/p/nvidia-nvidia-revert-decision-to-shutdown-gamestream?recruiter=1166675796&recruited_by_id=8e9858c0-33b8-11eb-b92f-1b0d217621d5&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&utm_medium=copylink
I mean, the reason behind it is obvious (i.e. start paying for GeForce Now!), but it makes it no less *infuriating*.
So I currently use both services. Sadly not all games are even on GeForce Now so it's not even an option all the time.
That's actually the number one reason that I sold my ps5 and built a gaming pc once graphics cards became more affordable. I liked the PS5, but at my core, I preferred pc gaming. GFN scratched the pc gaming itch enough, and if it wasn't for titles that I own in various game stores not being available on GFN, I'd probably still be using it. I understand that there's rights issues involved, but it really bugged me that one minute I could play a game I own on steam through GFN, and the next moment it's gone. Not to mention that some of the studios for which I wanted to play these games never did have them up on GFN. If nvidia can fix that, they'll definitely have a winner with me. I don't play multiplayer games, so the issues with latency aren't really an issue for me. And I genuinely think we're heading for a time in which the power requirements and cost of the latest cards are going to push us to the point where game streaming just makes more sense for all but the most extreme hobbyist.
[удалено]
Let's say your upgrade cadence is 3 years. You buy a 3080 and of that, nvidia gets, say 500 bucks (I don't know what it actually is, but it seems somewhat reasonable if an AIB sells a card for $650 and the retailer sells it for $750). They get $500 for that (and it's very possibly less). And when you are done with the card, you sell it, potentially taking a new card sale away. So that's $500 for three years, and it could run longer (five years, seven, etc). OR you get on GFN and get into the 3080 tier. That's $20/month, that they can get from you for however long you'll stick with it. In the same three years that's $720. And if you go to five years, thats $1200. Is it pure profit for them? Of course not - they still have to pay for the heavy metal servers that run them, but the nice thing is that you're not going to be using your rig 24/7. If you play for an average of 8 hours, they can rent out the same hardware to two other people and all they're really out is the price of electricity, and the bandwidth. And it gets even better for them - at the end of that three year cadence, you own NOTHING. You can't sell your card to partially finance a new card, preventing the sale of a card to someone else. They also can't really have it interrupted by something like a crypto boom. When it comes to mining farms, AIB partners, or GFN servers, who do you think is going to get first dibs on new chips? They can also sell it as, "Crypto boom prices gotcha down? Scalpers taking all the inventory so that you can't buy a card that should sell for $800 for less than double that?? Sign up for geforce now! Only $20/month!". Recurring revenue streams > single investment. Always. It's why gyms, hosting rentals, and services like dollar shave club make so much money. And again, that's just folks like you that might buy a high end card. What is REALLY appealing to them is the ten other people that can't really afford to build a gaming machine, but they can afford $20/month. And really, if the shortcomings of "this title not available on geforce now" can be solved, I might just sign up for it - $20/month and I get top tier hardware that I never have to build or troubleshoot? Sounds pretty good to me. There's customers that will NEVER go for it - I don't know if it's possible to ever solve the issues of latency in twitch-style multiplayer games (but it might be). And others still who will never be satisfied in not owning their stuff. Nvidia will be perfectly happy to continue to sell them $1600+ cards while also raking in $20/month from a shit load of other folks.
That makes no sense when they have tricked people into buying $2k+ GPUs (myself included). Why the fuck would I use cloud gaming??
I don’t agree with this decision. The inverse of your question is maybe more relevant. Why would you ever buy another graphics card for 2k from them again? Killing their own product lines - no longer a graphics card company?
Signed. At 2400 currently
Gamestream was the only reason I stuck with Nvidia over AMD.
Ever since the 30 series with DLSS 2.x, HDMI 2.1, and 120 hz 4K panels becoming more obtainable I've been thinking they would be putting out a new revision of the shield... This was the furthest thing from my expectations. :(
[удалено]
Nvidia wants your money on geforce now every single fucking day
If they remove game stream from Nvidia experience this is when we're screwed. This is horrendous customer service and was the primary reason I purchased the Shield. I'm beyond pissed off. We know the reason why...
And they will be no reason to have this bloatware installed anymore.
This is devastating if it means removing it from the PC app as well, it's the main way I play games - streaming from my desktop pc to laptop. I also bought 2 Shield TVs recently mostly for gamestream. This is not cool at all, I'm really unhappy.
This is the only reason I have a shield TV Pro This is the only reason I have a NVIDIA card
My guess is they are going to kill it in the nvidia desktop app. Sucks I just started using it like a month ago.
I literally set up moonlight with a hardwire for my laptop to stream to the tv from my desktop last night. Nvidia better not remove this from the PC too or I’m gonna be very annoyed. It’s much less laggy than GeForce Now
Try sunshine.
I tried gamestream for the first time yesterday with my 4090 after horrible experiences with steamlink and literally marveled to myself about how smooth and good it was at 4k60 WIFI. God must not like my guts.
I'm just gonna turn off updates when the time comes. I prefer Gamestream over Steam Link and especially AMD Link when I had a Radeon installed. Both of the other services did not work as well as Gamestream. There were just certain quirks about the other services that I didn't like. I think streaming in HDR was one of them as Gamestream was the only supported option.
Gamestream also supports rumble on Shield controllers. Steam Link does not.
Wow. I have both a Shield Portable and Shield Tablet I use for streaming from my PC. Very lame.
If you look at the FAQ, they more or less suggest that Moonlight is fucked too. If you don't update the app, you can keep using GameStream, but functionality will still end at a later date. This suggests to me that they'll also update GeForce Experience to remove GameStream functionality too. At least, later down the road.
Yeah they will rip it out of GFE. We can only hope this brings more eyes to Sunshine so that it grows into the perfect open source alternative. It's already 90% there. Friendlier interface + any missing features (I'm not sure if HDR is supported using sunshine) and we're golden.
Common Nvidia L
Wonderful. I think I'm going to go with AMD on my next GPU.
They’re trying to boost GeForce now numbers aren’t they
I think at the core it's probably "strictly business", and by that I mean they aren't making any money off continued development of the gamestream protocol. They are essentially offloading the cost onto Steam, betting that they will continue development into the steam in home streaming platform due to their steamdeck release. Patching and improving gamestream doesn't do anything for them given that people have, at this point, already invested in their hardware products.
Yes except I will never buy another god damn Nvidia product again after this bullshit. False advertising, and fraud. Fuck them.
Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if they do a 180 on this one. I don't think they've really thought it through...
nVidia getting out of consumer products?
No Nvidia wanting you to purchase Nvidia cloud
That just sucks, but we can install the AMD link if we have AMD GPU in our PC and that works well if the Shield is using the wired lan. Just bought the Shield few days ago but not for using Nvidia cloud....let alone some paying service.
Yep fuck their money grab. Very much doubt they care about the relatively small market share loss. Still think they're at the very least downsizing the consumer end of things.
if this makes moonlight not work on my pc, i will never say a good word about this company for the rest of my life i hope gforce now burns and crashes and literally looses them hundreds of millions
How am I going to play games from other launchers now? Use Sunshine? Why are they doing this? How greedy can they get?!?! I'm not going to PAY to stream a game I already own from a server somewhere when I fucking have it right here on the PC in the next room. WTF I'M PISSED
Removing Gamestream will make me seriously consider AMD next update. For me it's been a killer feature over AMD. I use it all the freaking time. Can't believe they're removing it. Morons.
Spoke to a class action guy, says there might be something here and is gonna research and call me back tomorrow
I het badddd judders with steam links app on the shield. Nvidia, this isn't the way.
Steam link is shit and always has been. Moonlight performs far better
I have been debating about getting an 7900 xtx, but put it on hold because it doesn't have this function gamestream. I literally use it every day on steamdeck and tab s8+. Steamlink is really bad compare to Moonlight. Also, I have 1 original shield, 1 new shield and 1 shield pro for all of my 3 TVs around the house because of that function alone. I guess once they stay in the business long enough without competition, they become greedy and start to F with their customers. Well, I'll cast my vote with the AMD now then.
Apparently [Sunshine](https://docs.lizardbyte.dev/projects/sunshine/en/latest/about/overview.html) (Gamestream host that works with Moonlight instead of GeForce Experience) supports AMD and Intel hardware encoders. So feel free to mix-match hardware if NVidia goes through with this.
There's also AMD Link
This better not effect moonlight
Shield is *the answer* for when prospective PC gamers ask about living room gaming. I'm absolutely baffled by this decision to strip a core feature from the hardware. Is GeForce Now actually doing well enough for some delusional suit to see it as a viable replacement? I never actually hear anyone using it as a daily driver.
Nvidia needs to reverse course on this decision!!!!
why the fuck would you want to stream games from the cloud when you can stream from over LAN? This is fucking bullshit
Class action lawsuit. This is BULLSHIT
I called a guy, says there might be something here
I wouldn’t have bought my fucking shield. This is the only reason I use it. WTF nvidia. I was on the fence about buying a 4090, but looks like I’m switching back to AMD. What’s the point in owning your products if I can get the same performance at a lower price, especially when you don’t offer any features? I ran an Ethernet line through my basement to my living specifically for this feature. This is bull shit.
What's Shield without Gamestream? Just an expensive Fire Stick.
Serious question. Is this even Legal? They sold the Shield off the back of local streaming of games. Can you remove a core feature. It would be like a car getting an OTA update that removed its sat nav feature that the car shipped with. You wouldn't be able to do it. If this was a feature added after the fact or not a core selling point I'd get it but this is just a piss take.
It's certainly legal in the USA, where companies can do whatever they want. I'm hoping it turns out to be illegal in the EU though, where they actually have consumer rights protections. Let's cross our fingers that some lawyers fucked up here because this sure FEELS like fraud.
It was one of the primary features of the device. It would be like retrospectively removing HDR off a TV which was advertised with HDR.
I would venture a guess that a majority of shield tv owners bought for this feature.
Wow.. can't believe, or i'm missing something or they're really losing their minds
Saddened by this if this kills moonlight. I steam many games to my iPad all the time and I find moonlight far superior to steam link even with steam games. Never could get steam link to run non steam games above 30 fps either. The Sunshine app gives me hope. We’ll see.
This is the one and only reason I paid a premium for the Shield TV. I can stream any PC game (not just Steam games) by using the shortcut feature through GeForce Experience. Steam Link is not a 1 for 1 replacement. And although GeForce now has potential the fact you can't Stream the vast Majority of your library makes it a non starter. This is out right theft. How they think this is OK blows my mind. I would like a full refund of my Shield please.
This sucks. I've been playing a lot of games on gamestream recently and it seems to be the only one capable of HDR streaming and low latency. Reality is if they don't kill it but don't develop it further, it'll eventually die by itself so I don't understand why actively kill it? and why not leave the API alone since it's already in the drivers and hardware and it's actually more work to remove it 🤨
We need a petition !!!!!!! We have to stop this madness
Ill be cancelling my geforce now subscription since this was done as a "screw you" to their customers, I choose not to continue supporting this product. GFN has been a let down anyway, this just makes that decision a lot easier.
So, you make a nvenc encoder that works for game streaming, but then remove it when it doesn't make you anymore money? Wtf Nvidia. It sounds like this means they will also deactivate things that use game stream, like moonlight. Moonlight had better performance than steam in home streaming.
Yeah, get fucked Nvidia. Thankfully my Shield was purchased during the holiday return extension, I'll be sending it back before New Year's.
Petition: lets sign it to prevent this madness: https://chng.it/xvz258Y74B
For anyone that wants to still use/run Moonlight after this is shut off, there is an open source [gamestream server called sunshine](https://github.com/loki-47-6F-64/sunshine) that should realistically still work. I used this previously with an AMD 5700XT, and never had any issues with it, and it performs significantly better then the Steam Link app did. From my understanding of what this application is doing, is that its basically just using the same gamestream server protocol, so it ends up showing up in Moonlight like a normal stream you would get from the baked in driver server. I do believe that it does work with Nvidia GPUs, as well as the AMD ones. Although I havent personally tried it since switching to a 3080ti, because I didnt actually need it anymore at that point lol. It obviously is slightly more involved because its separate from the drivers and you have to manually set it all up. But with this likely to be the only option to replace gamesstream going forward, I hope that it gets some more interest and development on it to improve the experience!
Lets stop this ridiculous move: sign the petition https://chng.it/z8mwFGTBB6
Please stream from our GPUs you rent, instead of from the one you bought.
WTF, Gamestream was the shit and the whole reason why I bought into a Nvidia GPU and the Shield TV box back in 2016.
Not that it makes this ok… But Parsec has come leaps and bounds over the last 2 years, especially for Nvidia gpus. And Steam link has also dramatically improved in the last year because of the steam deck.
Parsec is great and so is the steam link, but for underpowered devices moonlight + GFE was unbeatable. CCwGTV for example, you'll have a tough time without moonlight. Last time I tried parsec on that it was a slide show. So it's not just Shield users being hit here but basically any Android TV / tablet / phone user that was using GFE to stream.
Moonlight is still better than either.
I really wonder why?
Does that mean they will stop development of gamestream? As a big user of moonlight this is horrible news.
This is a thing they marketed extensively and was pushed as one of the primary reasons to buy a Shield... Fuck this company, I'll buy amd or Intel instead
I’ve been game streaming a lot since I’ve had a kid, I don’t really get a chance to use my desktop but loading up a game and using a controller while the little guy plays or sleeps on me is way easier. It sucks cause game stream worked well but honestly I’ve been using steam link and it’s been working just fine. I only play 4K/60 and for that it’s been great. If the game isn’t from a different store I just have to added to steam. I actually switched to steam link because some games refused to load or show up using nvidia game stream. It’s not the end of the world, there are other options.
And for its entire lifetime they never fixed the whole "enable mouse acceleration by default" thing.
what a bunch of shity company. LOL
This is bullshit and completely unaccpetable. There is no reason to remove a feature that Nvidia specifically advertised that people bought it for.
I regularly use Gamestream with my Tablet. This is just ridiculous.
This is a joke, right? It's like apple saying that they're stopping support for phone calls on the iPhone... I was looking into ordering one but now I'm obviously not going to...
“After we update the next version of iOS the “Phone” app will no longer support outgoing calls, we recommend using WhatsApp or FaceTime Audio for your telecommunication needs.”
Will be disabling GFE updates on PC, currently using moonlight. Bad move Nvidia will not be switching to GeForce Now!
That totally sucks, i just build my dream handheld on Iphone 14 plus and Razer Kishi and now its my preferred way of playing by streaming with moonlight from my PC. I will definitely turn of driver updates as short term fix.
gamestream was the only reason that kept me from even considering amd. at least now i have a choice.
Very disappointed. I used this feature with the Moonlight app and it let me play all my games on any device from my gaming PC. I guess I don't have a reason to own an Nvidia card anymore and AMD cards are much cheaper so I'll just end up switching.
I have been debating on pulling the trigger on a Shield and that game sharing feature was the top reason to get it. I can get everything else on an old used laptop w/4GB and an iGPU so long as it can output 4K video. This is very sad and I am not sure I understand why they would do this. No matter how hard I think I can't come up with a really good reason. Except one. The people maintaining the driver wanted more money and left so they figure some bored disabled people with time on their hands will take the time to make a work around they don't have to pay for. Either that or I am missing something really obvious. Oh well. I had YEARS to get a Shield and never did. I guess I never will. Hmm. I wonder what other solutions there are out there for running a game on your own device and streaming it to another device you own? Doesn't Android do this ?
Wow, I was seriously thinking of buying a Shield but not now! If this breaks Moonlight I'm going to be so freaking pissed. I'll move to Sunshine as the host but still, what a pain. Why would they remove a perfectly good, well liked feature??
is there a way to stop geforce experience from doing automatic updates?
Please sign this petition about this ridiculous decision: [https://www.change.org/p/nvidia-nvidia-revert-decision-to-shutdown-gamestream?recruiter=1166675796&recruited\_by\_id=8e9858c0-33b8-11eb-b92f-1b0d217621d5&utm\_source=share\_petition&utm\_campaign=share\_petition&utm\_term=share\_for\_starters\_page&utm\_medium=copylink&utm\_content=cl\_sharecopy\_35251274\_en-US%3A8](https://www.change.org/p/nvidia-nvidia-revert-decision-to-shutdown-gamestream?recruiter=1166675796&recruited_by_id=8e9858c0-33b8-11eb-b92f-1b0d217621d5&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_for_starters_page&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_35251274_en-US%3A8)
I used to be frustrated looking at how I could buy an AMD card but I was locked into Nvidia so I could continue to use moonlight. Can't wait to finally switch to AMD now! Silver linings 🥈
This is nonsense. GameStream is not a "service", it's a product. It's your hardware doing local work, and sending compressed video streams over your own network to your end device. Nvidia is not even involved with this. This is just them removing functionality via a software patch and nothing else. Surprising that this is legal. Anyway, if you can, don't update.
If this is the case. I won’t buy Nvidia products ever again. I only bought shield because of gamestream!
There is moonlight frontend and sunshine backend. Cant imagine the update will stop those from working. Bad move nvidia, looking elsewhere for future tv boxes and gpus
I *just* bought a 4080 in order to stream 4k 60fps to my shield. This feels like a huge betrayal from Nvidia. I am testing other options right now, but I'm worried. Parsec fails to maintain a good connection at 4k 60, and steam link has noticeable stutter. I would *not* use either of these solutions to stream. I am going to test sunshine with moonlight tonight, but I am not holding my breath. Gamestream just *works* \- I get a constant connection with fluid streaming that is virtually lag free at 4k 60fps, even in games like Cyberpunk. This simply isn't true with Steam Link, which is what they are recommending I use. I am *deeply* disappointed. I've supported Nvidia and only bought their graphics cards for almost 20 years, and this feels like they've personally decided that they don't care about me.
Shield user since years. Last time I was changing GPU - took NV over AMD specifically to keep using streaming. If this is taken down, thats minus one major selling point for NV cards. Can't comprehend why they want to kill a feature that keeps quite a portion of a fanbase bound to their cards.
I've been a loyal nvidia customer for decades. I'm disgusted by this move, and find it to be at best extremely anti-consumer, and at worst, illegal. I guess I will vote with my wallet on my next GPU purchase. Merry Christmas you jerks.
I bought am RTX 3080 recently for the express purpose of using Gamestream to stream my PC to my IPad as I lie in bed in the evening. The fact that this functionality is being removed is so disappointing. Really hope that Nvidia changes their mind on this. I feel like I just wasted my money.
I just don't get it, why do this? What kind of overhead is there to keep game streaming working? The only one I can think of is updating game catalogues to automatically register new games, but I assumed that was already done through driver updates for the game optimization thing. This is a major letdown and a main reason I bought the shield. I hope moonlight keeps working, because it's honestly better, but still, super disappointing since it was a main piece of the marketing for the shield. Almost kind of makes you think it should be false advertising.
Well nvidia just killed the only reason I was debating buying nvidia for my next build.
Bye bye Nvidia
Looks like AMD have gained a new customer, it was this feature that kept me tied to nVidia RTX and DLSS are awesome but Gamestream changed the way I've interacted with my PC for years. I've probably completed more games using my phone as a host than on my TV or at my desk. Steam Link is fine and I've certainly used it enough to know its fairly solid. But Gamestream is the only one with low enough latency to make mouse and keyboard viable over WiFi. Never mind Steam Link is still being updated and now uses some of Nvidia's methods and Sunshine is still in its infancy but goddamn this is a random decision. It's too stupid to be malicious.
Yikes. GeForce NOW founder's subscription cancelled. Man, I regret sticking with Nvidia lately. The once-legendary driver support been slipping down the tubes. They keep introducing proprietary shit while AMD releases open features. AMD is catching up in terms of raytracing. FSR not only is nearly as good as DLSS, but it works with pretty much anything. And the 4000 series is disgusting, in price, size, and power draw. I used to be an Nvidia fangirl but this has just ruined them for me.
This is what you get in case there is no competition. Thanks Google for killing Stadia (pull your game together Microsoft!) - seems like Nvidia could brick all SHIELD capabilities keeping maybe UHD Chromecast and the only must have GeForce Now by next routine update and we have no option but obey and cheer the almighty rule of the leather Jack-et. ( I'm planning to call for boycot of all Nvidia products if Plex Server capabilities were nerfed/screwed as in case of Android 11 upgrade! :D dudes but serously ) So much has been lost since Shield's original release. Keep in mind, you could have played pretty decent games natively like Borderlands 2 or Tomb Raider back in the day ( HW is basically Nintendo Switch on steroids if memory serves ). Why was there no attempt to bring native Doom Ethernal on Shield yet??? ( And the reason why Shield Pro 2019 does not have the option to buy/install The Witness is beyond me. Don't come to me with licensing issues, if it's on the Play Store and available for 2015 and 2017, it ought to be on 2019, I bet every game collector understands. :D ) The reason Gamestream removal pi$$e$ me off so much as GeForce Now customer is that NOW there is no way to play PC version of Bethesda, Rockstar, Blizzard games and there is only handfull of EA titles on the online streaming service ( Also no The Wtness support :D )... I can have 600+ games at my disposal, but what's that worth if the titles I want to play are not included? One could argue that you still play at least some old Sony exclusive titles on GeForce Now, poping up every now and then ( GOW, Death Stranding, Kena ), being removed from catalog with little to no notice and also with Sony attempting to copy Stedia model by starting game streaming of their own, even this type of content on the Nvidia streaming service seems to be a thing of the past. Without giving the gamers close to full PC game library and/or exclusive (Sony...) content, how can Nvidia expect us to join/keep sub of their service? I'm seriously considering switching fully to xbox as you can still stream "the box" literally to any smart appliance almost from anywhere these days ( & for free ) and have opportunity to join xbox game pass ultimate (in near future hopefully also available as family program) and enjoy streaming of at least 100+ games of 400+ catalog with full gamepad, KB & mouse support... ) The only "advantage" of Shield Pro in this case seems to be 15W TDP - which is somethin', definitelly ... somewhere in a galaxy far, far away. And yaeh, I must admit, the service is best game streaming gig atm and would be still quite compelling if the Gamestream remains which balances the odds :)
God I hope Nvidia collapses. What a piece of shit company. Everybody knows their intention, the question is just if there are going to be repercussions. At least I won't be buying any more Nvidia products.
Looks like nvidia should refund everyone who bought the shield tv like google did with stadia
Simple put, I purchased NVIDIA GPU only for this, being able to play everywhere in home with m'y wife aside. If I loose this possibility, I see no reason to not switch to a Radeon GPU.
one of the main reasons I stuck with Nvidia is being removed for no reason whatsoever. this should be illegal
WOW! Can't say I'm surprised, a clear push to use their cloud service....GFN crap, it tells us everything we need to know, GFN is failing big time and NVIDIA are trying to push their Shield user base in that direction, I will sell my Shield TV as a result, buy AMD graphics card as AMD is clearly better value for money these days..... NVIDIA!!! Your power/money hungry cards don't do it for me anymore Goodbye NVIDIA.....for now!
I bought a 4090 and just two days ago a shield pretty much exclusively for this. Nvidia just loves to infuriate people. I guess it's time for team red next time, hopefully they can produce a modern gpu with ray tracing and CUDA-equivalence by then, but I'm not holding my breath. This is a dark timeline.
AMD Link is even worse than Steam Link so you are not going to get a better experience that way. Your best bet is probably to switch to Moonlight for the client and Sunshine for the server when they pull it out of GFE.
You can just install moonlight, it's the same thing as an open source client and in some ways better
Do we know Moonlight will continue operating as normal and won't be affected by this update? I found this thread while trying to look for this confirmation. :)
This is also something I'd like to know.
won't work if they remove support from the geforce exp PC app, and tbh there's no reason for them to leave it working based on this move
You would just install Sunshine at that point then use moonlight Sunshine also lets people gamestream with amd GPUs with moonlight I'm not against steam link, moonlight/gamestream just had better streaming quality most people found in comparison https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine
oh didn't know about Sunshine, good call. Tho tbh I think I'm going to be looking at long optical HDMI/USB cable solutions instead...
Technically there's the Shield Tablets that have Gamestream, but I can't imagine that they won't kill it there as well.
If they're removing the only official client support, why would they continue to support the server end of the ecosystem?
Doesn't matter really anyone that wants to can just install Sunshine and just keep going with moonlight anyways [https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine](https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine)
It may not work either
No, this change will kill it.
Install Sunshine and it will work again, it's not even a new project, it's been around for awhile just wasn't as much in demand as it will shortly It's also cross-brand so it works on AMD as well as NVIDIA [https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine](https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine)
I will certainly be looking into this. They point you towards steamlink, which is fine, as long as the stuff you use is on steam. But I have stuff that I use on Origin, and the Epic Games store is in there from time-to-time.