TECH NEWS – The feature will be removed from all Shield TVs early next year, Nvidia recently announced.

Nvidia GameStream is a service that, with the proper hardware, allows you to stream 4K games from a powerful PC to a TV in your living room. The service launched in 2013 and worked with the company’s Shield TV device. It was never as popular as, say, Steam, but many people still use it today.

Nvidia has announced that GameStream has reached the end of its life, and “in mid-February, a planned update to the Nvidia Games app will begin rolling out to Shield owners. With this update, the GameStream feature will no longer be available in app.”

The company added that Shield owners would be able to stream games to their TV using Steam Link in the future. And the GeForce Now service is expected to enable cloud-based streaming to Shield TV.

Needless to say, Shield TV users are pretty freaked out by the decision. GameStream is a core feature of the Shield hardware. In fact, it was one of the most used features. This feature was the most important purchase criterion for many people who bought the Shield.

“WTF Nvidia?” writes one Shield user on the NVIDIA subreddit, “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.”

“Why would anyone actually buy a Shield TV if not for the function they are removing,” says another user. “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.”

What about simply bypassing the February update? Nice idea, but we must quote Nvidia again. “Gamestream may continue to work for a time, but will no longer be supported and eventually will stop working. All other services supported by Nvidia Games, including GeForce NOW, will require an app update to continue working.”

So there you have it: GameStream will be discontinued, and if you try to run the Shield as is, the other functionality will be buggy or not work at all until you upgrade to post-GameStream next year.

It’s hard not to sympathize with the customers’ reactions. It’s not just about the Shield hardware itself. You need to be part of the broader Nvidia ecosystem to use these features. Yes, there are those for whom GameStream mattered when choosing a GPU. Not to mention using other hugely popular services such as Moonlight, which requires GameStream to work.

Source: Nvidia