The new Install-to-Play feature enables premium members to download and install over 2,000 Steam games opted-in for Steam Cloud Play directly onto GeForce NOW cloud storage drives, similar to a local gaming PC experience. More will be added each week.

NOTE: Install-to-Play is not available for day pass users with no underlying paid membership, or gift card or promo users.

Game Support Types
GeForce NOW now supports Steam games in two ways:

Install-to-Play games: Games you can install and play from your own Steam library, as long as the publisher has opted in to support Steam Cloud Play. You will need to install these games in each session, and can optionally purchase a storage plan to keep your installed games and saved data in the cloud for games that don’t support Steam cloud saves. More will be added as publishers opt-in their games for Steam Cloud Play.

Ready-to-Play games: Games designed for instant access, and are highlighted each week on GFN Thursday. They are always kept up to date, tested for a seamless experience, and NVIDIA manages all the backend work, ensuring the most popular games are readily available. You can jump right into playing them without any installation steps. Ready-to-Play games do not count against your 100 GB storage. 

NOTE: Not available for GeForce NOW Alliance partners at this time.

Finding Install-to-Play Games
You can browse all the Install-to-Play games in the GeForce NOW app by going to the Install-to-Play section and clicking SEE ALL, checking game details for the Install-to-Play label, or by using the filters in the app to see all Install-to-Play games.

The game details page has been updated with new details:

Install-to-Play tag to indicate if this game is that type.

Game Size (estimated, when available) so you know how much space is needed in case you want to purchase storage

Steam Cloud which indicates if the game supports Steam Cloud Saves.

How to Launch an Install-to-Play Game

Installing and playing Install-to-Play games requires users to install their own games through Steam.  We recommend following these steps to install and play games:

1. Sync your Steam Game Library.  Users can set this up under Settings > Connections to know which supported games they own on GeForce NOW.

2. Browse to a game. If you own the game, the label for it will say “INSTALL”. Click that to launch Steam which will let you install the game in GeForce NOW’s storage server.

NOTE: Users will have to login to Steam again when launching an Install-to-Play game.

3. Install the game.  Once inside Steam, browser to Steam > Library to the game you want to Install.  You should see options to “INSTALL” the game like the screenshot below.

4. Play the game. Once the game has been installed, you can launch the game from your Steam Library.  The button in the GeForce NOW app will also switch from “INSTALL” to “PLAY” if you purchased a storage plan to keep your installed games.

NOTE: If you have not purchased GeForce NOW Cloud storage, your game will be deleted after your session, which means you will have to install it each time.  You can prevent this by purchasing Persistent Cloud Storage.

Cloud Storage Overview
GeForce NOW offers two types of cloud storage for Install-to-Play games:

Single-Session Cloud Storage: This type of storage requires the game to be downloaded at the start of each playing session. 100GB of single-session storage is included with Performance and Ultimate memberships. Some games may require the purchase of more storage to start the install, or you might still want persistent storage to save your game installation for future gaming. 

NOTE: Games that support Steam Cloud saves will keep your game save progress for future sessions.

NOTE: Persistent Cloud Storage add-ons are currently not available to SEPA users. For more information about SEPA limitations.

Purchasing Persistent Cloud Storage
Users can purchase Persistent Cloud Storage at any time.  You can check the status of your purchased Persistent Cloud Storage under Settings > Account > Cloud storage.

Here are some things to be aware of when purchasing storage:

Billing Cycle: Membership and storage have one billing date and cycle - you will be billed on the same date. If you purchase storage during your current membership billing cycle, your monthly storage price will be prorated for the current billing cycle, and then will be the standard pricing for the next billing cycle.

Upgrades: If you have an existing Storage plan you can upgrade your storage at any time.  Your new monthly storage price will be prorated for the current billing cycle, and then will be the standard pricing for the next billing cycle.

Downgrades & Cancels: There is no option to downgrade your storage, you can only cancel it. If you cancel your storage you will lose your storage and all the data on the next billing date. 

NOTE: If your GeForce NOW membership is canceled or your billing payment method fails, you will lose all your data.  However if you re-enable payment before your pending cancellation, your storage and data will not be lost.

Persistent Cloud Storage Location
When purchasing Persistent Cloud Storage, users will need to select a location from which Install-to-Play games will stream.  This location may be different from where you play Ready-to-Play games, which may mean you have a different network latency for Install-to-Play games.

You can also check your Persistent Cloud Storage location in the GeForce NOW app under Settings > Account > Cloud Storage > Storage location.

You can check which GeForce NOW server locations have Cloud Storage by visiting https://status.geforcenow.com/.
 
If you wish to change your storage location, you must RESET your Persistent Cloud Storage and then select a new location from the account settings page.

NOTE: If you reset your storage location all of your data, including saved games, will be deleted.  If the game you play supports Steam Cloud Saves, those saves should be synced and saved to the Steam Cloud, so they will be synced back to your new Cloud Storage location.

Managing Your Persistent Cloud Storage
You can uninstall and manage your cloud storage from the GeForce NOW app under Settings > Account > Cloud Storage > MANAGE STEAM GAMES.  This will launch Steam, where you can uninstall games.  You can select any game and then click “Uninstall.”

Saved Games
GeForce NOW supports cloud saves from digital game stores, like Steam.  We also support our own cloud save system.

When using Install-to-Play, the GeForce NOW app will show you if it supports Steam Cloud as seen below

If you are playing a game that does not support Steam Cloud saves, we recommend you purchase Persistent Storage in order to save your progress using the NVIDIA cloud save system. If your GeForce NOW membership is canceled or your billing payment method fails, you will lose all your NVIDIA cloud saves, but the Steam Cloud saves should be preserved.

NOTE: Ready-to-Play games support digital store cloud saves and NVIDIA cloud saves.

Other Issues

RTX and HDR are supported on Install-to-Play games, but the badges will not be shown in the game details.

NVIDIA Reflex is not supported on Install-to-Play games.

The Language information in the game details does not reflect actual in-game language support.  We recommend users setting the language in Settings > System > Game language. When you launch a game, it will attempt to set the in-game language to match that setting, if the game supports that language.

If your game doesn't work, send in-app FEEDBACK. We will review these with game developers to see if they can be fixed.  If they cannot, the game will be retired from GeForce NOW.