Gamers in China can now sign up for a trial of Tencent’s cloud gaming service START, allowing them to play Fortnite, NBA2K Online 2, Path of Exile and Blade & Soul anywhere via streaming.
For its new service, Tencent partners with American GPU-maker Nvidia. START focuses on distributing PC and console games, and the current free trial will run until February 6. People with internet speeds of at least 20Mbps in seven regions in China -- including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province -- are eligible to sign up.
The service is being trialed as a feature of WeGame, Tencent’s PC game distribution platform. WeGame boasts 300 million registered users, 7 million monthly active users and has sold 10 million copies of games. It launched an international version called WeGame X earlier this year, seen by some as a move to challenge Valve’s Steam platform.
Tencent said there will be three phases to its cloud gaming strategy. It will first seek to make cloud gaming a lag-free experience on PC. Then it will focus on making the service affordable before moving on to making exclusive games for the cloud.