About Geforce Now and GOG!

[Jack_7BP]

So, I already have the game for almost a year on GOG version, but my PC is not the better choice to run this game. I have used GeForce Now for months and I know Cyberpunk is confirmed to be on GFN with Steam version.
My question is, will the best version of the game, the GOG version, since all the money will go to CD Projekt RED, have support to GFN?

As far as I understand, the rules to be supported on GeForce Now are the devs saying YES to this. Since the GOG version is the best choice, and the devs already said YES to GFN on Steam, why can't you say YES to GOG version too?

Please, don't come saying about DRM!
A LOT of games use their own launcher to be played on GFN, and I can't install unofficial versions inside of GFN Servers to play it. All the service has to do is open my account on GOG launcher, as it does with other launchers, see if I have the game on my game list, and let me play it. There is a game list, they only need to access it, and I WANT them to access it to let me play!

So, please, tell me Devs, WHY NOT?
If this is a NVidia problem, let it be public, using this post or something!
We NEED an answer!
What I'm asking here is an official answer from CD Projekt RED, since this is the official forum.
Don't say "We have nothing to say", or "We don't have information to tell"! This is not an answer!
Go for the information and answer here, Why can't we use our GOG version to play on GFN?

[Edited for content -- SigilFey]


EDITED - For those interested, I have posted this discussion on NVidia forums too. Link below:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/gfn-general-chat/20/404584/cyberpunk-2077-gog-and-gfn/

 

[SigilFey]

Geforce Now is a project being handled by Nvidia and Steam. It has nothing to do with CDPR or GOG. You should really be talking with Nvidia. It's not CDPR's decision what other companies choose to offer as platforms or who they choose to do business with.

The request is valid, but I'm not sure what's involved in actually bringing it to fruition. Obviously, for games to be offered on a GFN / Stadia type of platform, it will require servers to be created to host the games for as many users as want to play them. Very possible that it's not a realistic venture at this point.

And do keep in mind:
Asking for information is fine, but no one is required to answer your questions according to your desired level of detail and satisfaction. Sometimes, the answers are not publicly available -- other times there are simply no answers to give. Let's keep the tone polite and constructive, please.

 

[theg4dfly]

I would like to know this too. I'm fairly certain that this is an nvidia problem.

Literally all other launchers are on nvidia geforce now, so it shouldn't be a technical issue or a matter of GOG not wanting to be on that service. Also, studios putting their games on GOG DRM-free are the least likely ones to complain about how people want to play their games. So I don't think it's the game studios, especially ones that already have their games on the service via other launchers, that are opposing it.

I think it's almost certainly that other launchers are telling nvidia to not support GOG, because they are afraid of GOG's consumer-friendly business model (except for the not supporting linux part, pls fix) becoming successful.

 

[Cargan2016]

This litterally has nothing to do with CDPR its a GFN decision more than anything. and all the versions will be the same its just a matter of where you get it. its like buying the shoes at walmart or target they same thing

 

[Spockprime]

This makes no sense to me. CP2077 is available on both Steam and Epic stores, as well as GOG (which CDPR also owns). There's no DRM issue, and there's no conspiracy of the other stores against CDPR. Well maybe there is, but not in regard to CP2077.

[Edited for tone -- SigilFey]

 

[theg4dfly]

This makes no sense to me. CP2077 is available on both Steam and Epic stores, as well as GOG (which CDPR also owns). There's no DRM issue, and there's no conspiracy of the other stores against CDPR. Well maybe there is, but not in regard to CP2077.

We're taking about GOG support on GeForce Now, a cloud streaming service, not CP2077 availability on launchers. Nvidia Geforce Now authenticates with launchers to ensure that you own the game before they allow you to play it on their servers and stream to your device.

 

[Jack_7BP]

Geforce Now is a project being handled by Nvidia and Steam. It has nothing to do with CDPR or GOG. You should really be talking with Nvidia. It's not CDPR's decision what other companies choose to offer as platforms or who they choose to do business with.

The request is valid, but I'm not sure what's involved in actually bringing it to fruition. Obviously, for games to be offered on a GFN / Stadia type of platform, it will require servers to be created to host the games for as many users as want to play them. Very possible that it's not a realistic venture at this point.

And do keep in mind:
Asking for information is fine, but no one is required to answer your questions according to your desired level of detail and satisfaction. Sometimes, the answers are not publicly available -- other times there are simply no answers to give. Let's keep the tone polite and constructive, please.

First of all, Thanks for the answer!

This post has a question that no one seem to want to answer, until now!
The problem is, lots of costumers from many games, and from Nvidia, ask this question and need answers to understand it better. "Without answer, there is no comprehension"!

I thank you for answering me, and I apologize for the tone of the first post, but, as far as I understand, it was necessary to get the right attention to this matter!

If I don't misunderstood your answer, this IS a NVidia issue, and NOT a CD Projekt RED thing. I thought it was the case from the beginning, but having this officially clarified, me and other NVidia costumers, can go now and talk to them, to see what can or cannot be done. The only thing I wanted here was an official answer, it doesn't matter if it's a positive or negative one!

Again, thank you for your answer and for your time!
Now that I have real information, I can try to contact NVidia, using this information here as argument, and ask them what can or cannot be done.

 

[cyx370]

Geforce Now is a project being handled by Nvidia and Steam. It has nothing to do with CDPR or GOG. You should really be talking with Nvidia. It's not CDPR's decision what other companies choose to offer as platforms or who they choose to do business with.

(...)

First of all, Geforce now isn't just about Steam, it also includes Uplay, Epic and several other smaller companies with their own launchers. Second - all of the developers have to specifically agree with their games being on GFN - and CDPR's Witcher series is available on GFN, so CDPR had to agree to it (so it was CDPR's decision). We, your customers, obviously don't see what is going on the corporate level. But it's really interesting that CDPR's games on GFN are only supported when purchased on Steam, but not here on CDPR's own GOG.

 

[SigilFey]

First of all, Geforce now isn't just about Steam, it also includes Uplay, Epic and several other smaller companies with their own launchers. Second - all of the developers have to specifically agree with their games being on GFN - and CDPR's Witcher series is available on GFN, so CDPR had to agree to it (so it was CDPR's decision). We, your customers, obviously don't see what is going on the corporate level. But it's really interesting that CDPR's games on GFN are only supported when purchased on Steam, but not here on CDPR's own GOG.

Yup. And that seems to be the way it is. I don't have any answers for it, either.

Only thing I can think of is that GOG has their own plan...or they're just not interested in hosting cloud-based gameplay servers.

Personally, I'm waiting to see how this type of thing actually works in practice. Ever since the idea of Stadia was announced, I immediately thought to myself: "And who's the company that's going to provide the direct, fibre-optic, internet taps to every household that wants to use this service?"

I mean, think about it: even mega-corporations like EA or Ubisoft with thousands of dedicated servers can't always get even the basic multiplayer aspects of games to work reliably. But somehow...these same companies are going to create servers that will allow (potentially) millions of simultaneous players world-wide to run individual, simultaneous instances of games like The Witcher 3 smoothly, reliably, and on demand.

Things like TW3 are often difficult to get running well even when installed on beastly gaming rigs with 1 TB of SSD space and absolutely no latency or package loss whatsoever. But these services are going to do so for numerous different games concurrently...then stream that performance to millions...over standard internet connections...?

Don't get me wrong -- I think the idea is solid and it will eventually work as intended. But I also think there will be a cursed forest of nightmare issues with it before we get there.

 

[Spockprime]

We're taking about GOG support on GeForce Now, a cloud streaming service, not CP2077 availability on launchers. Nvidia Geforce Now authenticates with launchers to ensure that you own the game before they allow you to play it on their servers and stream to your device.

Ah, then I had it wrong. Still it's probably just some sort of technical issue that will be worked out. NVidia seems to have a good relationship with CDPR.

 

[theg4dfly]

stream that performance to millions...over standard internet connections...?

Don't get me wrong -- I think the idea is solid and it will eventually work as intended. But I also think there will be a cursed forest of nightmare issues with it before we get there.

I think it will improve much faster than you're predicting. They are already developing technology similar to DLSS 2.0 that use neural networks to reinflate compressed data. This will result in at least 10x less bandwidth needed to stream a game at the same resolution. The problem is that this doesn't solve the issue of latency, so controls will not feel as precise as if you were rendering everything locally. So having a good computer will still be a better experience even if you can get the same graphics quality via cloud streaming.

NVIDIA's AI Reduces Video Streaming Bandwidth Consumption by 10x

GPU-manufacturer NVIDIA announced their Maxine platform for AI-enhanced video-conferencing services, which includes a technology that can reduce bandwidth requirements by an order of magnitude. By moving much of the data processing to the cloud, end-users can take advantage of the compression...

www.infoq.com

Post automatically merged: Oct 24, 2020

Ah, then I had it wrong. Still it's probably just some sort of technical issue that will be worked out. NVidia seems to have a good relationship with CDPR.

I wish it were a technical issue, but

 

[SiyahaS]

Only thing I can think of is that GOG has their own plan...or they're just not interested in hosting cloud-based gameplay servers.

I think there is a misunderstanding here, GeForce Now does not require any specific server infrastructure from developers. As it is actually a remote desktop with some restrictions to fit DRM model. All the hardwork is done by GeForce Now team(virtualization, server hardware, drivers for server grade cpu/gpu etc) as players actually run PC version of the game, albeit in remote desktop.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

If I understand correctly, Geforce Now is just a VM renting service and in theory shouldn't have problems like that. I.e. you need to buy the game in some store like GOG or Steam (Windows version specifically) and Geforce Now allows you to rent a Windows VM to play it (and you need to pay for the service itself, not for the game).

If for some reason Geforce Now don't allow you to run whatever you want (like the game you already paid for) find some other VM renting service, there are a few around which are aimed specifically at gaming.

Or you can use something like Stadia for example where you pay for the game, but it still runs remotely (on Linux). CDPR are releasing CP2077 there.

 

[Jack_7BP]

I mean, think about it: even mega-corporations like EA or Ubisoft with thousands of dedicated servers can't always get even the basic multiplayer aspects of games to work reliably. But somehow...these same companies are going to create servers that will allow (potentially) millions of simultaneous players world-wide to run individual, simultaneous instances of games like The Witcher 3 smoothly, reliably, and on demand.

I don't know if I misunderstood what you said, but s far I understand, the only place that have servers running games on demand, in this case, are the NVidia servers. Ubisoft, EA and other companies don't need to have anything to have their games on GeForce Now. Just need to say YES!

When we look at the servers list of the GeForce Now app, we can see lots of Big Servers spread around the world, and they plan to have more countries. The only companies with something similar are Google and Microsoft, with Stadia and xCloud!

Post automatically merged: Oct 25, 2020

If I understand correctly, Geforce Now is just a VM renting service and in theory shouldn't have problems like that. I.e. you need to buy the game in some store like GOG or Steam (Windows version specifically) and Geforce Now allows you to rent a Windows VM to play it (and you need to pay for the service itself, not for the game)

Initially, yes!
Old players that have used the first versions of the App, reported they could play any game from Steam, and if I'm not wrong, from other programs. The limitations begun when companies started to say they were profiting from their games without paying, which is not correct. As you said, people still need to buy the game to play!

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Then don't use them. As above, there are some other cloud services that allow playing games that you already bought. Or just use Stadia, you can buy CP2077 there.

 

[daesdemon]

In my opinion, the only result of GOG not available on Geforce Now, is that users (like me) that would have buy Cyberpunk2077 on GOG because they wanted to support CDProject, will buy it on Epic (for me) or Steam to be able to use the Geforce now service (to get ray tracing for example that i have not on my old poor gtx1070 )
That's is not a big deal, but that's frustrating, and in my opinion not in the benefice of CDProject.

About Geforce Now , i am an effective user of the service and i can tell that with a decent connection (i have a VDSL 64Mbits) , it works really great. I play Ghost Recon Breakpoint on it in extra settings and the only little problem is the 15ms latency i get before command are taken into account in the VM, that is problematic on competitive multiplayer games. You also get compression quality loss if the connection gets worst.

 

[SiyahaS]

Then don't use them. As above, there are some other cloud services that allow playing games that you already bought. Or just use Stadia, you can buy CP2077 there.

Sadly most countries are not supported by Stadia/XCloud services. Also having Steam/Epic version on GeForce Now and not having GoG version on GeForce Now is somewhat a stupid idea, cause Steam/Epic takes cuts on the sales. So they are potentially throwing around 30% or 12% of their sales for nothing. I have already bought the GoG version of the game, and met the GeForce Now afterwards. If they won't release GoG version for GeForce Now I might be tempted to refund and go Steam as I already have tons of games on Steam. And the same game but on Steam already will support GeForce Now on launch date.

 

[theg4dfly]

will buy it on Epic (for me) or Steam to be able to use the Geforce now service

Why would you buy it on Epic and not Steam? Just curious.

 

[SigilFey]

I think it will improve much faster than you're predicting. They are already developing technology similar to DLSS 2.0 that use neural networks to reinflate compressed data. This will result in at least 10x less bandwidth needed to stream a game at the same resolution. The problem is that this doesn't solve the issue of latency, so controls will not feel as precise as if you were rendering everything locally. So having a good computer will still be a better experience even if you can get the same graphics quality via cloud streaming.

I'm sure they have plans! We will eventually see.

I don't know if I misunderstood what you said, but s far I understand, the only place that have servers running games on demand, in this case, are the NVidia servers. Ubisoft, EA and other companies don't need to have anything to have their games on GeForce Now. Just need to say YES!

When we look at the servers list of the GeForce Now app, we can see lots of Big Servers spread around the world, and they plan to have more countries. The only companies with something similar are Google and Microsoft, with Stadia and xCloud!

Not sure 100% how all of the mechanics will come together. I'd be shocked if Nvidia (a company almost exclusively focused on GPU hardware design and production) would team up with Steam/Valve (a company founded on a massive, server-based industry)...and not say, "Hey, as part of our business arrangement, we'd like to use some of your existing servers to get this cloud-based gaming thing going!" And if Steam is interested, I can't see them saying no to that request.

But I think, "Just need to say YES!" is significantly oversimplifying how this type of a process would work.

1.) It will require servers to be available, maintained, and managed.
2.) It will require staff to handle all of that.
3.) If it doesn't use existing servers, then those servers will need to be purchased.
4.) If it does use existing servers, those servers will no longer be available for their former function. This will obviously affect other areas of business.
5.) These logistical concerns will grow over time. As more people use the service, there will need to be more hardware and personnel to manage it.

It's going to be a full-on business venture, just like anything else. There will never be a time where a company is faced with these concerns, but also has the luxury to say, "Yeah. Whatever. Just go for it. It'll sort itself out."

 

[Jack_7BP]

Not sure 100% how all of the mechanics will come together. I'd be shocked if Nvidia (a company almost exclusively focused on GPU hardware design and production) would team up with Steam/Valve (a company founded on a massive, server-based industry)...and not say, "Hey, as part of our business arrangement, we'd like to use some of your existing servers to get this cloud-based gaming thing going!" And if Steam is interested, I can't see them saying no to that request.

But I think, "Just need to say YES!" is significantly oversimplifying how this type of a process would work.

Fair point, this example of NVidia and Steam cooperation you told about, is not impossible, but, as far as NVidia say, they really use their own servers, that they build in the last years, and the only thing (their words) the publishers need, is to contact them and "say YES". This is a NVidia business, and since they don't pay anything to publishers or developers, it really makes sense that they use their own infrastructure for that!

Many smaller companies, that use their own launchers are available on GFN this way. What I imagine that could be a bit different, is when the company have their own launcher, and will have to give a minimum support to NVidia developers to prepare everything in their servers. In our case, the work is not to give support to 1 game, since GOG is an entire platform, just like Steam, Epic and UPlay. An interest and cooperation between the two companies will probably be a necessity here!

As costumers, all we can do is to touch the subject with all the companies involved, understand what need to make this happen, and show our interest, making as much clear as possible, that this could be an interesting business to them.