{"id":5737,"date":"2017-04-27T16:44:55","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T20:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/nvidia-the-future-nokia-of-pc-gaming\/"},"modified":"2017-04-29T19:26:38","modified_gmt":"2017-04-29T23:26:38","slug":"nvidia-the-future-nokia-of-pc-gaming","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/nvidia-the-future-nokia-of-pc-gaming\/","title":{"rendered":"NVIDIA: The future Nokia of PC gaming?"},"content":{"rendered":"

NVIDIA is the Intel of graphics processing units (GPUs). It designs and markets\u00a0chips specially designed to render images and manipulate graphics on display devices, and some 200 million gamers<\/a> around the world use NVIDIA\u2019s products. The firm\u2019s GeForce line is the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me of triple-A gaming technology, and the brand is synonymous with performance and reliability. I am clearly a fan of NVIDIA.<\/p>\n

As the gaming ecosystem evolves, Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA\u2019s CEO, faces a tough challenge: remaining relevant in a world that \u201cwill increasingly be expanded by virtual realities<\/a>.\u201d Despite some progress by players like Oculus and Google, that world is still largely unexplored, and every software and hardware player in the gaming market is eager to claim market share in what could be a $40 billion opportunity by 2020.<\/p>\n

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NVIDIA could pursue one of any number of growth paths, but its choice is non-trivial. There is no guarantee that discrete GPUs will remain a core component of future VR technologies. For evidence, consider the rise of Intel as a microprocessor manufacturing powerhouse. Memories were thought to be the cornerstone of computing prior to Intel\u2019s introduction of the CPU, but the initially slow, general purpose CPU rapidly supplanted DRAM memory in the value chain. It is not far-fetched to believe something similar could happen to NVIDIA in the VR hardware space.<\/p>\n

NVIDIA\u2019s efforts to build hype, and perhaps dependence, in the VR market have been largely parallel to its traditional 2D gaming efforts. The Oculus Rift, for example, requires a powerful video card to deliver an optimal user experience. A gamer can simply plug the Rift into her existing gaming PC equipped with a GeForce card. Relatedly, NVIDIA published a collection of mini-games titled \u201cVR Funhouse\u201d to showcase the capabilities of its GPUs in VR, and it also released a software development kit, VRWorks, to support third-party game development.<\/p>\n