After four months in closed testing, Nvidia’s GeForce Now online gaming service now offers a touchscreen-optimized version of Fortnite for iOS and Android. It means iPhone users will be able to play one of the world’s most popular games again after it was removed from the App Store in August 2020 for bypassing Apple’s in-app payment system. On iOS, GeForce Now is accessed through the internet, while Android users can use an app.
Following a months-long trial period, Nvidia says that 500,000 customers streamed over 4 million Fortnite experiences over the service. Nvidia claimed that the testing allowed them to improve its “on-screen touch controls and game menus.” Hopefully, the adjustments solve the “finicky” control method that my colleague Jay Peters described in January.
Because Android users may still sideload the game, iOS users stand to benefit the most from this touch-optimized version of Fortnite coming to GeForce Now. Previously, the PC version of Fortnite could be streamed using Nvidia’s cloud gaming service, which is also available on Windows, macOS, Android TV, some LG TVs, and through browsers like Chrome and Edge. However, because Fortnite is already available on the majority of this hardware, it may be easier to play the free-to-play game natively in many cases.
Epic and Nvidia announced their aim to stream Fortnite on iOS in November 2020, so this touch-optimized version of the game on GeForce Now has been a long time coming. The game has since been released on Microsoft’s competitive Xbox Cloud Gaming service, where it debuted earlier this month. Because of Apple’s limits on game streaming services, Xbox Cloud Gaming is only available on iOS via web browsers.
Nvidia is offering any beta testers three free days of Priority membership to GeForce Now, its middle tier, which typically costs $8.99 per month, as part of today’s announcement. It can be redeemed at redeem.nvidia.com, but to stream Fortnite at 120 frames per second on compatible Android devices, you’ll need to be a subscriber to the service’s most expensive $19.99 a month RTX 3080 tier.
Nvidia claims that its cloud gaming service currently has a library of 1,300 games available through Steam and the Epic Games Store together.
