Nvidia showcases GeForce Now servers in India, full launch of cloud gaming service expected soon

The US chip giant said that the service will provide access to more than 4,000 games, including ready-to-play titles and a new install-to-play feature that essentially lets users install certain games directly from the cloud. While users can sign up for a free GeForce Now account, most premium features are reserved for paid subscriptions. Nvidia has not yet announced the exact launch date of its service in India or details of its subscription pricing.

The announcement that Nvidia’s low latency cloud gaming service is coming to India was first made at CES 2025, with a rollout expected in November last year. However, the launch was pushed to the first quarter of 2026 due to the setting up of dedicated GeForce RTX servers in India, as per reports.

“India is a very important market for us and has been for quite some time. But I know that there seem to be certain entry barriers to PC gaming in India. The cost of PC gaming is high, but it’s a country that has a lot of growth potential in the PC gaming market. So, by launching a service like GeForce Now, we are looking to broaden access and make it easier for people to give PC gaming a try,” John Gillooly, senior technical marketing manager, APAC South, Nvidia, told The Indian Express.

Gillooly was speaking on the sidelines of an exclusive media preview of the cloud gaming service held in Mumbai on Friday, February 6, to showcase GeForce Now’s high frame rate and low latency streaming. “The open beta will be tailored to the Indian market. It’s not just something we are copying and pasting from other countries. We will share more details about our Indian offering, hopefully, in the near future,” he added.

John Gillooly, senior technical marketing manager, APAC South, Nvidia. (Image: Nvidia)

The upcoming launch of GeForce Now in India also comes amid a deepening global shortage of memory chips caused by the AI boom. The Information reported last week that Nvidia has delayed its plans to launch a new gaming graphics card for the first time in over 30 years. However, Gillooly declined to comment on the report as well as the potential impact of the memory chip shortage on the gaming industry.

Nvidia confirmed that its GeForce RTX-powered data centres are located in Mumbai. (Image: Nvidia)

Stating that it was the best time to launch GeForce Now in India, Pawan Awasthi, Consumer Marketing head at Nvidia, said, “While growth in the broader consumer PC market has remained muted, the gaming PC segment has seen encouraging growth over the past few years in India and globally. Industry data from Steam also shows a sharp increase in its user base in India, alongside improvements in network infrastructure, including average download speeds of around 50 Mbps.”

These trends make it an opportune time to launch GeForce Now, enabling 4K, 60fps cloud gaming experiences, Awasthi added. Nvidia claimed that its Blackwell-RTX on GeForce Now delivers cinematic quality streaming (CQS) with optimised latency for sharper and more defined details. The CQS feature is optional and can be enabled in settings.

The cloud gaming provider optimises for click-to-play latency, which is the delay between clicking a mouse button or key and the action registering on the screen, by placing servers next to fast internet connections to minimise the amount of time it takes to get on the internet. It also relies on its own technologies such as Nvidia Reflex and Nvidia Rivermax for packet pacing in order to avoid choppy gameplay, as well as on-device tech such as Cloud G-Sync and 360 fps streaming for compatible hardware.

Nvidia further said it works with internet service providers (ISPs) to optimise packet transport and ensure traffic is prioritised, but added that it has currently not partnered with any ISPs in India for this purpose. GeForce Now is supported on a wide range of devices, including Fire TV sticks, Steam decks, racing wheels, flight controls, native Linux client systems, and virtual reality (VR) headsets, although VR usage is currently limited to a virtual screen rather than native VR gameplay.

Cloud gaming in India

Nvidia’s GeForce Now launch comes days after Microsoft announced that it is expanding its Xbox cloud gaming service to India. It allows any player with a compatible Bluetooth-enabled wireless controller, a high-speed internet connection, and an Xbox Game Pass subscription to play titles such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Detective Dotson, via the cloud gaming service. Monthly plans for Xbox Game Pass start at Rs 499.

Gaming experience on iPhone 13 via GeForce Now. (Image: Nvidia)

However, GeForce Now has a different model and can be used to connect to a user’s Steam, Epic or Battle.net account so that they can play games purchased on those third-party platforms. Since these games are streamed to their devices over the internet, players need to be near a data centre as minimising latency is critical, and routing traffic through international data centres can cause lag during fast-paced gameplay.

Nvidia confirmed that its servers powering GeForce Now are located in Mumbai. Asked about capacity and technical specifics of the local infrastructure, Gillooly refused to share details. “We do everything we can to minimise latency,” he said. The tech giant reportedly has 30 data centres for providing access to GeForce Now in over 110 countries.

India’s total data centre capacity is projected to surpass 2 GW by 2026. It is projected to exceed 8 GW in the next five years, driven by capital investments estimated at over $30 billion, as per various estimates. The Union Budget 2026-27 proposed a tax holiday until 2047 for any foreign company looking to set up and use data centres operations in India, provided they meet specified conditions.