Tencent Partners with NVIDIA on START Cloud Gaming Service

Tencent Games and Nvidia have partnered to bring gaming cloud services in China, the companies revealed on Tuesday.

The partnership will take the form of a collaboration in which Nvidia will provide Tencent’s START cloud gaming service with GPU technology.

Commenting on the news, the Chinese mogul said it will use Nvidia’s technologies to scale its platform substantially.

“NVIDIA’s leadership in building the world’s most powerful GPUs paired with their experience in cloud solutions will empower us to scale our START platform to millions of gamers,” explained Steven Ma, senior vice president at Tencent.

“Today marks a new opportunity for our companies to further push the frontiers of gaming,” he added.

Very much like Google Stadia, START allows players to stream AAA games on a browser or on mobile devices.

Nvidia’s support of START shows the company’s drive to expand further in cloud gaming applications. Last February, the company revealed collaborations with Japan’s SoftBank and Korea’s LG U+, both focusing on cloud gaming solutions.

These efforts are all parts of Nvidia trying to unite its cloud gaming efforts under GeForce NOW, a service already available in some North American and European markets providing PC gaming experience in the cloud.

“As one of the leading global platforms for game development, publishing and operations, Tencent Games is set to deliver amazing cloud gaming,” said Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of Gaming at NVIDIA.

“Combining the Tencent platform with Nvidia GPU technology will provide a world-class experience for gamers everywhere.”

Together with the partnership news, Nvidia and Tencent also announced a joint innovation lab for gaming. According to the companies, the new lab will focus on exploring gaming applications connected to artificial intelligence, game engine optimizations and new lighting techniques including ray tracing and light baking.

Cloud gaming is still in its infancy, and despite its highly-anticipated launch and promises, its current indisputed king – Google Stadia – is somehow still underwhelming.

Will Tencent’s START be able to compete to or to surpass Google Stadia? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below.