Nvidia has blocked streaming PC games on Xbox consoles

The Edge web browser, based on Chromium code, came to the Xbox console last month. It was an interesting thing because a month before that, GeForce Now received support for streaming PC games from that browser.

The result was that some PC games could stream on Xbox consoles - without you having a computer at all. You could buy a PC game via the mobile app for Steam and run it via streaming on the Xbox. The potential of this grew further when the Edge browser on the Xbox got support for the mouse and keyboard, which means that the Xbox with GeForce Now has practically become a PC.

Nvidia recently blocked the GeForce Now service on Edge browsers. That decision encompasses all versions of the Edge - for both the PC and Xbox consoles. However, support for Chrome and Safari browsers has not been discontinued, and the funny thing about this whole story is that Chrome and Edge share the same foundation and both are based on Chromium.

Asked by reporters from The Verge, Nvidia said it was "exploring the possibility of supporting the Edge browser in the future." After they had that support for a good three months already.

I asked Nvidia why GeForce Now is blocked on Microsoft Edge (on PC and Xbox):

“We currently support Chrome and Safari Browsers and we’re investigating Edge browser support for the future.” pic.twitter.com/2ulcxqpA7a

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) April 28, 2021

Now, it’s worth pointing out that Nvidia is probably not the culprit in this whole story. If it were up to them, they would be happy with as many users as possible regardless of the platform from which those users come. However, Nvidia has contracts with several publishers and developers that stipulate when and how their games can be streamed.

As streaming PC games on Xbox consoles can circumvent the need to buy Xbox versions of those games, for which the developers invested resources and paid for a license to sell the game in the Xbox store, it is clear that some did not like this. And they probably pressed Nvidia to block GeForce Now on the Edge browser, although technically there is no obstacle to the service being supported on that browser. And Nvidia probably didn’t know about Microsoft’s plan to launch a new Edge browser on the Xbox console.

Something similar to Nvidia happened earlier within the PC platform. Although technically GeForce Now does not sell PC games, not all publishers were thrilled with the idea that Nvidia, as the owner of the platform, earns money by streaming their games, without having any agreement with game manufacturers and publishers. For this reason, the GeForce Now service is supported only by some companies (eg Ubisoft, CD Projekt, etc.) while others have requested the withdrawal of their games from Nvidia's platform for various reasons (Activision, Warner Bros, Codemasters, Capcom, and others).