The Nvidia GeForce Partner Program was a marketing program designed to provide partnering companies with benefits such as public relations support, video game bundling, and marketing development funds.[1] The program proved to be controversial, with complaints about it possibly being an anti-competitive practice.[2] Nvidia canceled the program in May 2018.[3][4]

History

The GeForce Partner Program was first announced by Nvidia in a blog post on March 1, 2018.[5] On March 8, 2018, technology website HardOCP released an article which stated that Kyle Bennett (author of the article and editor-in-chief of HardOCP) had interviewed several people and companies who all said that they thought the terms of the GeForce Partner Program were "likely illegal" and that the program would "tremendously hurt consumer choices".[2] While a number of manufacturers joined the program (including Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte),[6] it was reported that HP and Dell refused.[7][8] It was reported that the US Federal Trade Commission and European Commission were investigating the program.[9]

Nvidia canceled the GeForce Partner Program on May 4, 2018, while asserting that there were a number of "rumors, conjecture, and mistruths" being discussed about the program.[10]

Practices

The program was regarded as an anti-consumer practice due to the fact that partnering companies were required to remove their gaming branding from all non-Nvidia graphics cards,[11] hurting consumer choice. Reportedly in response to these restrictions, manufacturers began releasing new brands for the competing AMD Radeon products.[12]

References

  1. ↑ "Nvidia gets anti-competitive with unsavory GeForce Partner Program".
  2. 1 2 "Article". www.hardocp.com.
  3. ↑ Larabel, Michael (4 May 2018). "NVIDIA Ends The GeForce Partner Program". Phoronix. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  4. ↑ Teeple, John (4 May 2018). "Pulling the Plug on GPP, Leaning into GeForce". nvidia. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  5. ↑ "GeForce Partner Program Helps Gamers Know What They're Buying | NVIDIA Blog". The Official NVIDIA Blog. 2018-03-01. Retrieved 2018-04-10.
  6. ↑ Evangelho, Jason (20 March 2018). "New Clues Suggest MSI And Gigabyte Are Aligned With GeForce Partner Program". Forbes. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  7. ↑ Evangelho, Jason (14 April 2018). "Report: 2 Major PC Makers Say No To Nvidia GeForce Partner Program". Forbes. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  8. ↑ Bennett, Kyle (12 April 2018). "Dell and HP Resist the NVIDIA GPP Leash - So Far". Hard OCP. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  9. ↑ Martindale, Jon; Nguyen, Chuong (16 April 2018). "AMD indirectly blasts Nvidia's GeForce Partners Program in open letter". Digital Trends. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  10. ↑ Killian, Zak (4 May 2018). "Nvidia puts the kibosh on the GeForce Partner Program". Tech Report. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  11. ↑ Evangelho, Jason. "Report Alleges New Nvidia Program Engages In Monopolistic, Anti-Consumer Practices". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  12. ↑ Kampman, Jeff (17 April 2018). "Asus launches Arez Radeons as AMD digs in against Nvidia's GPP". Tech Report. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
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