The Grid service needs to add another three titles to its library before hitting the big 4-0. Nvidia says it will go down like this: Saints Row IV lands on Grid this Tuesday, February 17, followed by Alan Wake next Tuesday, February 24. The tremendously great Metro Last Light Redux will push Nvidia past the 40 game goal on Tuesday, March 3--the very same day it has a major press event planned that the company claims will "redefine the future of gaming."
Why this matters: At first glance, there couldn't be a gaming service more inconsequential than Grid. It has a tiny catalog compared to OnLive, and is only available on two Nvidia devices: the Shield handheld device and Shield Tablet. But Grid hitting the 40-game mark the same day as Nvidia's press event could be a big hint that Grid is about to get a wider release. Maybe PC support is coming, or an Android TV-powered "Grid box" for your living room, or a new Shield device It's all wild speculation at this point, but it seems likely the press event and the 40-game mark are related.
A cut above
Nvidia's Grid may not yet have the wider reach that OnLive does, but it is getting high praise from critics. When we took a look at Grid in December we said the service was "proof that streaming PC games [remotely] can really work...Grid is an exciting proposition."
Game streaming in all its various forms is becoming one of the hot new frontiers in gaming. Steam's local game streaming from one PC to another on the same network is a fantastic feature, and Sony is working hard to roll out PlayStation Now to smart TVs from Samsung and Sony, a microconsole, and regular PlayStation consoles. Microsoft recently announced that Windows 10 will allow you to stream Xbox One games to your PC, and the company is also rumored to be working on Xbox game streaming delivered from the cloud straight to your web browser.
As for Nvidia's redefinition for the future of gaming, we're keeping a close eye and will be front-and-center at the company's press event on March 3.