$6.2B in profit wasn't enough: Nvidia hikes GeForce Now prices for Canada and Europe
Cites 'increased operational costs' but whatever they are US gamers aren't impacted
Nvidia will increase the price of its GeForce Now game streaming services across much of Canada, Europe, and the UK, effective November 1.
Launched in beta back in 2015, GeForce Now works by remotely rendering games on GPUs running in Nvidia datacenters and then relaying control inputs from the customer's device. The service offers several membership levels including a free tier that limits play time to an hour. Paid "Priority" and "Ultimate" tiers unlock longer play times, higher resolutions, frame rates, and access to raytracing.
GeForce Now's free tier remains unchanged but for paying Canadian and European customers prices are going up. Why? In a help page published last week, Nvidia rather vaguely blames "increased operational costs" in the regions. How much customers can expect to see their monthly bills go up varies by geography, but those of us in the US appear to have been spared for now.
In Canada, customers will see prices rise $1 CAD to $13.99 a month (a 7.6 percent price hike) for Priority membership. Ultimate tier customers, meanwhile, will see prices increase by an extra dollar per month to $25.99.
UK prices will rise by about £1 a month for Priority accounts and £2 a month for the Ultimate service. Meanwhile, in Europe, prices will increase €2 a month for both plans. You can find a full breakdown of the price increases, including other currencies, below:
Nvidia notes that existing "Founders Priority" members will not be subject to the price hikes and will be grandfathered in at their existing rate.
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The company also notes that customers who sign up for six-month plans before November 1 will be able to lock in their current pricing. It is not clear whether customers will need to pay up front. We've asked Nvidia for clarification; we'll let you know if we hear back.
While it's not clear what Nvidia means by "increased operational costs" – for instance, it could be as simple as offsetting higher energy prices – it's worth pointing out the company isn't exactly short of cash.
In Q2, the chip giant netted $13.5 billion in revenues with profits of $6.2 billion. The lion's share of revenues was driven by datacenter sales – propelled by the rapid adoption of generative AI technologies that needs GPUs. Gaming remains a strong business for the chipmaker, with revenues related to the twitchy-thumbed crew growing 22 percent year over year to $2.49 billion last quarter.
While rivals have struggled to break into the game streaming market – most notably, Google's defunct Stadia – Nvidia's GeForce Now platform has enjoyed steady growth since its public launch in 2020. In January, the service swelled to 25 million members across 100 countries, though it's not clear what percentage of those are paying customers. ®