Nvidia partners with Tencent to develop a cloud gaming service

Two gaming giants have joined forces. Tencent and Nvidia partnered today to develop a cloud PC gaming service in China.

Cloud gaming is full of potential. Most games feature a cloud service in one way or another. From hosting the data on a cloud or hosting the game and the player accessing it, there are many opportunities to expand this feature. Tencent and Nvidia are partnering to develop the START program, a cloud gaming service.

Cloud gaming services come in many forms. Steam has a cloud save feature for most games. Epic Games recently developed the same feature. Cloud gaming is a little more advanced than synching game save files, though. The process is significantly different from the typical gaming experience, according to Digital Trends’ detailed description of cloud gaming services. It’s a combination of streaming and gaming. Instead of saving files onto your PC and adjusting the settings based on your computer’s capabilities, the game is saved elsewhere and you access it by streaming the game. 

The START cloud gaming service from Tencent and Nvidia will provide the same feature to Chinese gamers, according to Nvidia News. Tencent hopes to allow gamers to access AAA titles anywhere and anytime on “underpowered devices.” The gaming conglomerate also hopes to make the experience comparable to playing on a local computer. 

This isn’t Nvidia’s first step in the cloud gaming services arena. Besides previously partnering with companies in Japan and Korea, Nvidia hosts its own cloud gaming service known as GeForce Now. GeForce Now will link to your Steam library and allow you to play games on any and all platforms, according to Nvidia’s website. 

With Nvidia’s experience and quality and Tencent’s reach, there’s unbound gaming potential from this partnership. The START cloud gaming service began testing earlier this year.