Earlier this year Google announced Ending Efforts to Launch Steam on Chromebooksbut efforts to turn these low-power laptops into gaming machines are still a work in progress. Google has teamed up with Nvidia to offer a version of cloud streaming called GeForce Now that's staggeringly limited in some ways and generous in others. Starting today, anyone who buys a Chromebook will get a free year of a new service called GeForce Now Fast Pass. There are no ads and less waiting for server slots, but you won’t be able to play for a long time.
Even before Google Stadia game streaming service killedChromebook purchases often included several months of Pro subscription added. Lacking a gaming platform of its own, Google turned to Nvidia to step up gaming on Chromebooks. GeForce Now (GFN), which has been around in one form or another for over a decade, allows you to render games on a remote server and stream the video output to your device of choice. It works on computers, phones, TVs and, yes, Chromebooks.
The new Chromebook feature is not the GeForce Now subscription you can get from Nvidia. Fast Pass, which exclusive to Chromebooksincludes a mixture of limits and bonuses, making it a rather strange proposition. Fast Pass is based on the free tier of GeForce Now, but users will get priority access to server slots. So no more queues of five to ten minutes to start playing. It also lacks the ads that Nvidia's standard free tier includes. Fast Pass also makes use of more powerful RTX servers, which are otherwise limited to the $10/month ($100/year) performance tier.
