When Nvidia first launched the Shield, one of its major selling points was GameStream, a feature that allowed you to stream games from your PC to a Shield handheld, tablet or TV box. Nowadays, there are more options available for in-home game streaming, so Nvidia is dropping GameStream in an upcoming update. 

In a surprise move, Nvidia announced it will roll out an update to the Nvidia Games app for Shield owners that will remove the GameStream feature. Shield owners can still use the feature if they don't install the update, but the feature will no longer be supported and it may eventually stop working. It is also worth noting that not updating the app could prevent access to other services, like GeForce Now.

As an alternative for in-house streaming, Nvidia recommends you use Steam Link, which is natively compatible with Nvidia Shield products. Like GameStream, it supports 4K streaming and allows streaming to many devices, including PCs, phones, and tablets. In addition, it also supports Nvidia Share, so it should work as a comparable solution. Another option is a cloud streaming service like GeForce Now.

Even if Nvidia doesn't mention it, another alternative would be Moonlight, an implementation of the GameStream protocol, and Sunshine, a game stream host for Moonlight. Together, they offer a fully open-source solution that works much like GameStream with similar quality and wider compatibility.

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KitGuru says: Do you own an Nvidia Shield product? Do you regularly use the in-home streaming feature or have you switched over to an alternative like Steam Link? 

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