Google and NVIDIA seem to have found a way to bring their respective game streaming service to Apple’s iOS. As per the latter’s blog, the workaround to the fruit company’s stringent App Store ruling was to release a mobile web app version of its service.
Specifically, both Google’s Stadia and NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW game streaming services will be accessible via Apple’s Safari web browser on the iPhone or iPad. To be fair, the concept isn’t groundbreaking and neither Google nor NVIDIA are the first to go ahead with such a service. In fact, Microsoft had planned on doing something similar with Project xCloud, but was clearly beaten to the punch by its two competitors.
It should come as no surprise that Apple’s App Store guidelines on game streaming is by far one of the most stringent in the industry, while some have described them as outright draconian. Back in August, the fruit company came under fire when it banned Fortnite from its digital marketplace, after the game’s creator, Epic Games, included its own in-app payment methods that effectively bypassed Apple’s usual 30% cut from all revenue made in-app.
On that note, both Google and NVIDIA’s choice to use stream their service via Safari is actually the two companies adhering to a suggestion made by Apple; if the App Store guidelines are something that they find “unfavourable”, they were free to use its web browser. On the plus side, the introduction of game streaming through Safari means that Fortnite is finally able to return to iOS.
Of course, game streaming via a web browser isn’t all smooth sailing. Because of some hardware limitations, NVIDIA is recommending that its GeForce NOW customer base use NVIDIA-certified gamepads, as gaming with a keyboard and mouse is still not available on Safari.
(Source: The Verge [1] [2], NVIDIA)
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