Genshin Impact comes to GeForce Now in limited beta

By Emily Morrow Published January 6, 2022

Genshin Impact, the hugely popular free-to-play action RPG from developer miHoYo, will be available today on Nividia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service. The game is currently in limited beta on PC only, with Nvidia promising a final release later this year.

Genshin Impact is the latest title to join the extensive list of games available on the GeForce NOW service, which allows players with less powerful PCs to take advantage of Nvidia’s cloud streaming technology to play games in their libraries on more powerful hardware, provided they have a strong enough internet connection.

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Genshin Impact‘s GeForce Now beta will drop sometime today. In a press release, the company encouraged users with miHoYo accounts to search for the game in the GeForce Now PC app to check for the beta. While the beta will only be available for PC users, the full release later this year will presumably allow players to travel through Teyvat on any of GeForce Now supported devices.

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The announcement comes only a few days after Nvidia’s extensive CES 2022 show, where the company revealed the latest and greatest in GPU technology and other upcoming games for its services. In addition to Genshin Impact, GeForce NOW will support Battlefield 4: Premium Edition and Battlefield V: Definitive Edition starting this week, as well as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction when it launches on January 20.

Players who own any of these titles will be able to use GeForce Now to play them via the cloud on enhanced hardware. Nvidia will also be bringing GeForce Now to Samsung TVs later in 2022, increasing the array of devices that players can use to stream their favorite games.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Emily Morrow is a games journalist and narrative designer who has written for a variety of online publications. If she’s…

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Although I can be tough on cloud services that have faults, I actually do enjoy cloud gaming on Google Stadia and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate quite a bit, and I’m excited about the technology’s potential for both players and developers. Currently, most of my cloud gaming takes place on my phone, but Logitech and Tencent Games want me to start playing cloud games on a new device. In October, the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld starts rolling out, and it hopes to become the way to play cloud games.
During a hands-off preview of the device, Logitech certainly delivered on highlighting an Android-powered device with two native cloud gaming apps that players can use to enjoy games with a Wi-Fi connection. At $350, though, it feels like a solution for a niche usage problem that similarly priced devices already solve. I could see myself enjoying this device if I wanted to stream a video game from my bed or a room without my TV and consoles. Unfortunately, it seems outclassed by just the ability to stream games on a midrange-or-better phone, something anyone reading this can likely do already.

What is the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld?
From a technical perspective, the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld contains specs that wouldn’t feel out of place on a mid-range mobile device. It features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G octa-core 2.3GHz CPU, as well as 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 64GB of internal storage that people can expand with an SD card. The display is a 7-inch IPS multi-touch screen that displays at a 1080p resolution with a 60Hz refresh rate. Players can listen to audio through its stereo speaker, a 3.5mm stereo audio jack, or a Bluetooth 5.1 connection.
What sets it apart is that Logitech built the controllers into the device, giving it a Nintendo Switch-like look. It has the d-pad, analog joysticks, buttons, bumpers, and triggers expected of a modern controller, plus a Home button to bring players to the home screen and a “G button” that will access more system-specific settings. Players will be able to remap the controls however they wish, though. On top of that, players can expect the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld to have haptics feedback, a gyroscope, a light sensor, and even a built-in stereo microphone with echo canceling and noise suppression support.
These aren’t top-of-the-line specs by any means, but Logitech made this choice because the device is made for gaming natively on the device. It also allowed them to get the device’s weight down to only 463 grams and give it a battery life of around 12 hours (it uses USB-C to charge), which has never been seen on a gaming handheld. Think of the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld as an Android 11 tablet with built-in controllers, uniquely tailored UI, and access to native Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now, and Google Play Store apps.