Bet a lot of people are going to appreciate this. As long as it's just another option, great!

My only fear is that the more popular cloud gets, it might potentially lead to a future where publishers and mainstream will swap to it almost exclusively. It is a future where I will no longer be buying any games. So just don't let that happen and we're good :)

Unless you bought a physical copy of the game, it doesn't really make a difference. I don't think there is a physical option for PC. The GeforceNOW app is actually pretty great. Not sure what you're saying here. Do you think NVIDIA is going to stop making GPU's and just start charging for server time? Doesn't seem like thats in their best interest.

I wouldn't be suprised. It's probably far more profitable to sell Geforce Now subscriptions - and now if you could just win those Console gamers over? Profit.

Yes. It looks very much like the next closed gaming platform in the making. A growing pie that GOG is no doubt keen to get a slice of.

Why would anyone bother with a console, when they can access cutting-edge gaming hardware for a subscription fee? We can all look forward to GeForce NOW exclusive games coming down the pipe at some point, if people continue to support this.

Having the client check with the server to see if the game is owned, and refusing to run otherwise, is DRM.

(Note that I consider it more acceptable, from this standpoint, if it's the *server* that refuses to run the game. That still has issues when it comes to game preservation (though having a DRM-free standalone version negates that issue), but I consider it more acceptable than having the client refuse to run it.)

(With that said, I still wouldn't use the service because there's other issues with nvidia, namely the issue that they keep their Linux drivers proprietary, and they intentionally disable or limit certain features on their consumer level cards with their drivers.)

Well that is the thing, there will not be a need for gog, epic, origin, steam etc if this becomes a thing, why buy from a "3rd party" seller where you need to have an account somewhere else when you can buy it straight from the "source" (being geforce now) and have all your library there in "one convenient location".

Isn´t the "physical" copy of the game just a dvd holster with a cd key?

Well if they start making more money off of that then I can promise you they certainly will. Fast forward a couple of years and I am sure you will see these services start having their own stores where you can buy the games directly from them instead of using a "3rd party"(gog, origin, epic, steam etc), there will be no need for the online game stores when everything goes there.

Incentive for developers is pretty big also, no pesky developing for endless amount of computer setups, no OS worries, everything runs on exactly the same OS and virtual ware.

You as a consumer will see the quite current low price of 5 dollars a month increase rapidly and the prices of games will also rise.
Big corp has been trying to move in this direction for quite a while now, they just wan´t you to have a screen and some peripherals and everything is run and hosted online. Ultimate consumer control.

I don;'t know if that is such a good thing. One convenient location sounds too much like a monopoly which will lead to higher costs and lower quality. Look at Apple - I used to spend a bit of my time playing some games on the iPad for convenience. Now mobile games have degraded to such a state of endless grind and microtransactions that I don't even open Apple store any more. It is easy to see the online gaming platforms going in the same direction.

Once you no longer have an alternative (PC, console - whatever), then your fate is no longer in your hands.

You might be getting access to cutting-edge gaming hardware but you are also buying into massive input delay. The delay is still the one massive drawback that will always be there so streaming will most likely never become the universal solution. It is as if you were playing with 100+ ping constantly. It may be fine for RPGs and such but fast paced games will never have success on any streaming service of any kind (at least with anyone who cares about doing well in games). Even more so for multiplayer games. I notice when I play Unreal Tournament on 40 ping just being connected to a server. I can't even begin to imagine how bad it would be on a streaming service.

As long as it just remains an option, I see it as a good thing that people without beefy PCs can opt for to play some of the latest games (options are always a good thing). And there is enough actual drawbacks to it that I don't think we have to fear (much) that "streaming only" will become the only option in the near future.

Nvidia shield also????

That's great news!!
I hope more titles will follow.
I have a lot of AAA games in my GOG library, which I haven't played yet, because I don't have enough space on my hard disk LOL :)

But look no further: GeForce Now + Google Drive solves all of your troubles!

Edit: wording

I wouldn't be so sure about this. There's been plenty of technical problems with online events (including conferences) and Zoom meetings, so I expect there to be techical problems with game streaming as well.

(Also, what if the server goes down, or there's some other failure in the network?)

Well, that is what I am saying, I am very much against this new "service".
I know from experience that this is MUCH easier to maintain. The problems with the service itself is a completely different thing, that is something related to the streaming and has very little to do with the game code. Either it would work for everyone or no one, so it is much easier to fix.

That is one of the reasons I am completely against this service, but they don´t really care, that is your problem not theirs, their solution, changes ISPs.