Nvidia has announced the cancellation of its GeForce Partner Program, in what’s turned out to be a rather embarrassing climb down. Originally announced back in March, Nvidia’s stated intention was to “help gamers know what they are buying” and ensure its “engineering and marketing efforts support brands consumers associate with GeForce.” The end result was anything but helpful, effectively strong-arming AIB partners into stripping their established gaming brands from AMD Radeon products.
The fallout was huge and, despite one or two AIB partners already rebranding, Nvidia has evidently decided enough is enough and thrown the towel in on the GPP.
In a statement over the weekend, Nvidia’s John Teeple didn’t so much offer an apology as intimate that everyone else simply didn’t understand what it was trying to achieve.
“A lot has been said recently about our GeForce Partner Program,” said Teeple in a blog post. “The rumors, conjecture and mistruths go far beyond its intent. Rather than battling misinformation, we have decided to cancel the program.
“GPP had a simple goal – ensuring that gamers know what they are buying and can make a clear choice. Gamers want the best GPU tech. GPP was about making sure gamers who want NVIDIA tech get NVIDIA tech.
“Most partners agreed. They own their brands and GPP didn’t change that. They decide how they want to convey their product promise to gamers. Still, today we are pulling the plug on GPP to avoid any distraction from the super exciting work we’re doing to bring amazing advances to PC gaming.”
The key part of this statement is “most partners agreed”. The suggestion here is that some didn’t, and those brands that didn’t obviously have a huge influence on Nvidia’s direction. A few weeks ago it was rumoured at HardOCP that Dell, HP and Lenovo had all declined Nvidia GPP due to concerns it was anti-competitive. Together, those three companies account for more than half of the PCs sold on the planet and clearly command a huge weight in the industry.
It brings to a close a turbulent period for Nvidia, who were fighting allegations that the GeForce Partner Program had attracted the attention of antitrust regulators at the FTC and EU Commission, with concerns that Nvidia was engaging in anti-competitive practices.
Glad to see the back of GPP? Or do you think Nvidia was genuinely trying to find a better solution for gamers? Let us know your thoughts below!
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E.A Almost Had a twin
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How can Nvidia be the twin if its focus is product sale restriction while EA is more of microtransaction?
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Good riddance to that thing..
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Intel: newbs!
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It is a good move on Nvidia's part but it is also sad to think that they introduced the program in the first place. And only cancelled when they absolutely had to after the push back.
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A good move? More like a move they HAD to make, lol..... The water around them was starting to boil and they were looking for a way out... they shouldn't be commended for that.
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coughs and you already said that.... You must have slipped it in like a ninja, there's no way my mind(which is sharp as a thumb tack) could have possibly missed that minor detail.
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It's cool mate :)
For the GPP, they deserved all the bashing they got.
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I love how they try to redirect blame..... lol it wasn't "their fault", it was "our fault" for not understanding.... yeah.... we should understand perfectly when they've never even officially acknowledged the program until now and never released a single detail to the public about it right? I also love how they want us to believe that people are buying AMD cards believing them to be Nvidia cards.... how DUMB do they think we are? That has NEVER been a problem! lol
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Now I think I'll go back to gaming on my Geforce RX 480 Nvidia Radeon 1080 Titan thank you! :P
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Hehe, suck it Nvidia!
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Awesome news for the gaming industry :DDD
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Offering incentives like access to their engineers was all well and good and arguably legal, but requiring exclusivity as consideration for such incentives is a textbook example of anti-competitive practices as the end is result is increased market share. Gamer "benefit" wud be a byproduct. The released statements are a stereotypical example of MNCs backtrack out of unethical and illegal activities; by feigning innocence and claiming it was "all for the benefit of consumer"