GeForce Now on Steam Deck feels like the remarkable streaming future once promised is still possible – but as a delightful and welcome option, not a replacement

Every now and then, something comes along in my video gaming life that I feel the need to evangelise. Even if I’m super late to the party – as I am here. So picture me, knocking on your door. Or ringing the bell. Whatever. Ding-dong. Hello! Can I talk to you about GeForce Now on Steam Deck? It might just change your life.

Alright, that might be a bit much. That’s something of an oversell. I tell you what, though – it’s . I liked my Steam Deck well enough as it was, even though it primarily served as an extremely ergonomic Balatro-on-the-go machine – absolute overkill for a game I have on my phone anyway. It has nevertheless served me well on transatlantic flights. Right as the Switch 2 started to draw away my attention (on my last eight-hour haul, I played a hell of a lot of Mario Kart World and left the Deck at home), the device has been recontextualized. The trigger? Nvidia’s GeForce Now service.

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If you’re not familiar with GeForce Now, it’s one of the few remaining ‘serious’ game streaming services left. Where Stadia arrived with a huge splash only to end up in Google’s metaphorical glue factory after just a few years of life, Nvidia has been much more quietly and diligently plugging away at its service for over a decade now – and the results are rather remarkable. This is true on pretty much any platform it’s available on: this is the best game streaming service out there.

One of the smarter plays is that Nvidia isn’t as interested in being an all-in-one service. This provides GeForce Now focus. It’s not trying to sell you games, or become your primary place to play games. It wants to be the service you use when you need to stream games. That’s it.