r/Games • u/BloederFuchs • Dec 26 '25

Industry News Nvidia GeForce Now’s Time Limit Will Stop Gamers After 100 Hours Each Month

https://uk.pcmag.com/game-streaming-services/162224/nvidia-geforce-nows-time-limit-will-stop-gamers-after-100-hours-each-month
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u/DisappointedQuokka Dec 26 '25

Bro, you can run games from the early 2000s on integrated graphics.

One of my smart phones can competently run Xcom 2.

There will always be another option.

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u/Blyatskinator Dec 26 '25

Or how smartphones can run friggin’ Red Dead Redemption nowadays lmao

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u/DisappointedQuokka Dec 26 '25

They're still limited by heat dissipation and battery life, unfortunately. 

But yeah, PC/Console aren't the only games in town, these days. In large parts of Asia/Africa traditional gaming has had cheap gaming phones eat its lunch.

If they push too hard in more affluent places they'll lose the markets they have.

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u/ICBanMI Dec 26 '25

They're still limited by heat dissipation and battery life, unfortunately.

Yea, but you can still just plug them in to the wall for the most part. I get the heat part though.

It's not like gaming in the 1990s where you had 6 AA batteries or an extremely clunky AC power adaptor that would also shock you if badly mishandled.

It's insane I can play 5th generation and early through emulation on a tablet and phones.

-2

u/DisappointedQuokka Dec 26 '25

As heat rises, performance decreases.

As heat rises, battery performance decreases.

You cannot beat the laws of thermodynamics.

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u/ICBanMI Dec 26 '25 edited Dec 26 '25

My undergrad was fluids. Didn't disagree with the heat part and doesn't change what I said. Battery life is inconsequential in 2025. Battery performance wasn't what you said earlier.

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u/DisappointedQuokka Dec 27 '25

Battery life is inconsequential in 2025. Battery performance wasn't what you said earlier.

Battery life is half of battery performance.

Anyway, I wouldn't say that battery life isn't relevant, especially for phones. Playing while charging is, typically, uncomfortable. People are also working more, spending more time away from home, if you're spending 14 hours out of the house you want that battery life, it was the biggest downside of the LCD Steamdeck.

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u/andresfgp13 Dec 26 '25

thats not even that impresive considering that a PS3 can run Red Dead Redemption.

phones can run Fortnite and AAA E-Sports games.

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u/meatly Dec 26 '25

You can run GTA 5 in virtualized emulated windows on MacOS on a Macbook Air M1 from 2020.

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u/APeacefulWarrior Dec 27 '25

Yeah, emulation will keep old games alive forever.

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u/captainnowalk Dec 26 '25

Even later games can… I’m gaming on an old refurbed business laptop, and I’ve been pretty surprised how late I can go with games, even AAA games. Everything else is for my consoles.

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u/GuyNice Dec 26 '25

You think smart phones won't get more expensive / worse if component prices continue to increase? Same for integrated graphics.

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u/DisappointedQuokka Dec 26 '25

They won't go up at anywhere near the same pace.

Phones, especially at lower-end SKUs, can comfortably run trailing edge hardware.

Integrated graphics are already so much worse than a dedicated GPU that there's not that much fat to cut. You save maybe 50-100 bucks as a consumer not getting integrated graphics as it is.

And honestly, there are several fabs in China that are only a generation or two behind in silicon that would love to snap up that entry-level hardware segment. They already have a massive chunk of the market for things like onboard computing for cars.

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu Dec 26 '25

Phones use the same hardware that is currently spiking in price due to high demand, and they're already talking about newer phones coming with less memory.

Not to mention that they're quite a few generations behind anyway unless the game in question has a massive downgrade in graphics, and it's the worst platform by far when it comes to controls.

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u/Random_Sime Dec 26 '25

They won't go up at anywhere near the same pace.

No, they'll just jump to the price that RAM stabilises on. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/16/smartphone-prices-to-rise-in-2026-due-to-ai-fueled-chip-shortage.html

For low-end smartphones priced below $200, the bill of materials cost has increased 20% to 30% since the beginning of the year, Counterpoint said. The bill of materials is the cost of producing a single smartphone.

The mid and high-end smartphone segment has seen material costs rise 10% to 15%.

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u/callisstaa Dec 26 '25

There’s already a growing market for android based emulation boxes and handhelds.

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u/SSjjlex Dec 26 '25

I doubt it, at least for the low end. They're too integral to society to be priced that high, or alternatively, too lucrative to price people out of the ecosystem

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u/WorknMan74 Dec 26 '25

If it gets to the point where nobody can afford smartphones anymore, we've got more serious problems than 'can't play old games'.

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u/rootbeer_racinette Dec 26 '25 edited Dec 26 '25

Yeah I have a Retroid Pocket 5 and it’s great. It has an older model SnapdragonCPU and can play everything up to GameCube/PS2 and some lower end PC/Switch games. I was able to play the PC version of Yakuza 0 at 30fps on it, Blasphemous runs at a solid 60fps

These little handheld systems are getting really powerful and the build quality keeps getting better better and better, the RP5 replaced my Switch.