Powerful computer for R200 per month
Nvidia’s GeForce Now presents a compelling argument that the gaming sector could soon undergo disruption in much the same way as the video entertainment industry.
Fortune Business Insights estimated the cloud gaming market to be worth a relatively modest $15.74 billion (R258.15 billion) in 2025, compared to roughly $200 billion (R3.28 trillion) for the overall industry.
However, the industry is expected to surge to a value of $121.77 billion (R1.99 trillion), representing a compound annual growth rate of 33.9%.
The appeal of a cloud gaming service is that subscribers gain access to the processing power of a gaming PC without needing to purchase the hardware themselves.
Apart from a fast Internet connection, the user only needs a device that can run the GeForce Now app, a screen, and a controller.
The app is compatible with numerous devices — many of which also serve other purposes and won’t require spending additional money solely for gaming.
GeForce Now is currently the only major cloud game streaming service available in South Africa. Microsoft Cloud Gaming and Sony’s PlayStation Now services are not supported locally.
The reason is simple: South Africa is a relatively small gaming market, and cloud gaming requires expensive computing power close to its users.
Gaming is extremely latency-sensitive, and the cloud gaming experience suffers significantly if the servers are located too far away from the user.
With higher latency, input lag increases. Pressing a button and only getting a response later — even with just a few milliseconds delay — can quickly ruin the gaming experience.
While GeForce Now is supported in South Africa, it is not operated directly by Nvidia itself. In smaller markets, Nvidia works through a GeForce Alliance Partner to support the service.
In South Africa, the service has been facilitated by mobile network operator Rain since its launch in December 2023.
Proving the substantial local demand for the service, the subscription slots were filled within hours of the rollout.
With a limited number of GeForce Now SuperPODS rigs to share between subscribers, Rain must carefully control the supply of the product.
If it signs up too many users, the service will have long waiting times for a rig to become available. If it signs up too few, expensive infrastructure will lie dormant for long periods.
GeForce Now still a winner in South Africa
To Rain’s credit, several MyBroadband Forum members have reported largely positive experiences with the service in the last two years.
However, demand seems to be greater than Rain can supply. The company rarely opens up new subscription slots.
For a long time, people who had signed up to the waiting list soon after the service launched complained that no slots had opened since early 2024.
That changed in December 2025, when many received emails to sign up for the service, including one MyBroadband staff member.
MyBroadband previously tested GeForce Now while it was in its beta phase. We signed up again to see if the service still held up after two years, and with new members in the pool.
The only subscription available to us was the Performance Plan, which supports 1440p gaming at 60 frames per second, costing R200 per month for non-Rain users and R160 per month for Rain clients.
We put in dozens of hours in graphically demanding titles, including Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Hogwarts Legacy, during the December holidays and came away impressed.
Game session waiting times were minimal, image fidelity was excellent, and the low input latency of the service made it nearly impossible to tell that we were not using local hardware to run the game.
The only time we became keenly aware that we were running on a cloud rig was while simultaneously downloading a game at our 250Mbps connection’s maximum speed on Steam.
Pausing the game download resulted in the GeForce Now picture going from a pixelated 360p mess to 1440p in less than 10 seconds.
This highlights another advantage of cloud gaming services — not having to wait for a title to download before playing it and not needing physical storage space for it.
Queues a bit disruptive, but hardly Home Affairs
The biggest issue we encountered was waiting in a queue for a gaming rig to become available. This mainly occurred during evenings or on Sunday afternoons — peak times for gaming activity.
The longest queue consisted of about 15 users during an evening, but it cleared up within half an hour. The longest time we had to wait was 40 minutes with nine people ahead of us on a Sunday afternoon.
These extra few minutes were very short compared to the 30 hours or so that we spent whip-cracking, puzzle-solving, spell casting, and beating up Nazis and fascists.
That being said, it is also important to highlight that you still need to own the games or have access to them through a gaming subscription service.
In our case, the tester had to subscribe to PC Game Pass at R250 per month, in addition to paying the R200 GeForce Now subscription.
The total price of R450 would still be substantially less than the typical R1,500 many top-tier titles cost nowadays. That assumes you can finish your playthrough in a month.
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