Pentanet Limited (ASX:5GG) has received strong market interest in the Australian launch of GeForce NOW – NVIDIA’s premiere cloud-based game streaming service.
In late January Pentanet commenced online registrations of interest by allowing future Australian users of GeForce NOW to reserve their usernames and register for an invitation to the Beta Program, to capture a good understanding of potential market demand for the service across the country.
Since that launch, over 24,300 gamers have registered, significantly exceeding the company’s expectation of the early interest for the upcoming new service. This level surpasses its initial business case expectations and provides strong confidence to scale up the initial launch plans.
Pentanet has now proceeded with the placement of an initial hardware order with NVIDIA in line with the cloud gaming strategy outlined in the company’s Initial Public Offering Prospectus. The strong registration response has justified an increased initial purchase order for 18 RTX game servers (up from 12 servers) at an approximate capital cost of $3.2 million. The servers will be split across two deployments, one in Perth and the other Sydney, with the increased capital spend allocated from working capital reserves.
Pentanet aims to roll out the Australian GeForce NOW beta this year, with a commercial launch to follow. The invite-only beta will be for users who have pre-registered, with Pentanet customers to receive priority access..
Managing Director, Stephen Cornish, said that the pre-registration period was an important initial step in the launch of NVIDIA’s cloud gaming service powered by Pentanet.
“We are encouraged by the very strong interest in GeForce NOW and now have a very clear indication from market demand that Australian gamers appear to understand and support the service, mirroring the strong demand also seen overseas.
“As someone who grew up playing video games, I am proud to be championing the next generation of gaming service into Australia, and I am looking forward to demonstrating both the power of this technology and its ability to shift the gaming market.”