Rather than spending thousands of dollars on a new gaming PC, there’s another option Aussies are turning to.
NVIDIA GeForce NOW is a cloud gaming service that lets you play PC games without needing a powerful gaming computer of your own.
Avid gamer, tech entrepreneur and cloud gaming advocate Stephen Cornish founded Perth-based Pentanet in 2017 with the goal of improving internet infrastructure.
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After experiencing frustrating gaming lag himself, he wanted to find a better solution for gamers.
“Cloud gaming should not be judged against an expectation that it would replace traditional gaming hardware,” Stephen says. “Its role today is much broader and, in many ways, much more complementary to the existing gaming ecosystem.”
In 2021, Stephen led Pentanet’s partnership with NVIDIA to launch NVIDIA GeForce NOW Powered by CloudGG in Australia, establishing the company as NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW Alliance Partner for the region.
“I think it speaks to the depth of expertise, ambition and professionalism within our team, and the confidence NVIDIA had in our ability to deliver,” Stephen says.
Since then, he has overseen the growth and evolution of GeForce NOW Powered by CloudGG, helping bring high-performance PC gaming to Australians across a growing range of devices.
“When much of the early hype around cloud gaming emerged, the experience was far more limited,” Stephen says.
“Today, NVIDIA and its GeForce NOW Alliance Partners are leading that evolution, with GeForce NOW capable of delivering significantly higher resolutions, frame rates and overall quality than was possible in the early days of cloud gaming.”
October 2026 marks the fifth anniversary of NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW transforming the way Australians can access high-performance gaming, without needing to replace the hardware they already own.
“Cloud gaming does not need to replace consoles or gaming PCs to be valuable,” he says.
“For some players it complements an existing setup, giving them more convenient ways to play across different devices or while away from their primary gaming hardware. For others, it may be their first realistic opportunity to access high-end gaming.”
How does GeForce NOW work?
Instead of your own device doing all the work to run a game, GeForce NOW can do it for you. The game is then streamed to your device, similar to streaming a movie or TV show.
That means you can play supported games on compatible laptops, Macs, TVs and other devices without needing to install the game on the device itself.
GeForce NOW lets you play thousands of supported games you already own through stores like Steam, Epic Games, Xbox, Ubisoft Connect, Battle.net, EA app and GOG by connecting to your existing game libraries.
In August 2026, the service reached 1 billion minutes played, with more than 800,000 registered members.
Australia Plays, a survey conducted by the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) and Bond University, shows that more and more families are gaming.
Stats show that a whopping 82 per cent of Aussies play video games, while 89 per cent of parents play games with their children or connect as a family. This means the need for faster, responsive gaming experiences is more prominent than ever.
And that’s exactly what GeForce NOW offers, without the expensive hardware upgrade.
Stephen says: “I’m especially proud of the two major hardware upgrades we’ve made over the years and our continued reinvestment into improving the service.”
“The first was the move to RTX 3080, which opened up 4K streaming for the first time, followed later by RTX 4080, which pushed frame rates and overall performance to another level.”
Upgrade your PC – without buying a new one
For gamers with older computers or laptops, GeForce NOW offers another way to play more demanding games without immediately upgrading their hardware.
More than half (56 per cent) of GeForce NOW members already own a gaming PC or laptop, with many using the service regularly.
In fact, 68.7 per cent of GeForce NOW members say they use the service daily or several times a week.
One Aussie user summed up the appeal: “It is just awesome. I find no reason to buy an expensive powerful gaming PC now.”
Another added: “Absolutely amazed by the performance of GeForce NOW, and as someone who only owns a Mac laptop, I’ve rediscovered a love of gaming.”
Five years of improved gaming in Australia
Over the past five years, GeForce NOW has grown from its Australian launch into an established part of the Australian gaming landscape, with zero signs of slowing down.
It has continued to evolve, introducing new generations of RTX-powered infrastructure, delivering up to RTX 4080-powered performance and streaming at up to 4K and 120 frames per second on supported devices.
The service also works across an expanding range of devices, while its community has collectively streamed more than one billion minutes of gameplay.
One member says: “The ability to stream high-performance PC games on almost any device without needing expensive hardware is a total game changer.”
For gamers who don’t want to replace their existing computer just to play more demanding titles, cloud gaming offers another option.
Looking ahead, Stephen believes GeForce NOW will become “part of the fabric of gaming in Australia” over the next five years.
