The GPP is dead and it seems too much headache for Nvidia to deal with. Let’s take a look at the blog post from Nvidia.
A lot has been said recently about our GeForce Partner Program. The rumors, conjecture and mistruths go far beyond its intent. Rather than battling misinformation, we have decided to cancel the program.
Well, for a program that touted transparency, we were limited to mostly rumors. We have no idea what the intent really was. I find it odd that a company would rather cancel an entire program and investment like the GPP instead of actually being transparent.
GPP had a simple goal – ensuring that gamers know what they are buying and can make a clear choice.
Which is why companies were changing AMD cards to other branding. Implying that gamers should make the clear choice to go with Nvidia cards. This could be a knock at the RX 560 from AMD with two different versions under the same moniker. The problem with this statement is Nvidia is guilty in the current generation with two different GTX 1060s and now two different GT1030s.
NVIDIA creates cutting-edge technologies for gamers. We have dedicated our lives to it. We do our work at a crazy intense level – investing billions to invent the future and ensure that amazing NVIDIA tech keeps coming. We do this work because we know gamers love it and appreciate it. Gamers want the best GPU tech. GPP was about making sure gamers who want NVIDIA tech get NVIDIA tech.
I don’t think anyone would argue that Nvidia puts less money into R&D than AMD. I don’t think that anyone would argue that Nvidia makes amazing technology. While Nvidia definitely has a lead at the top end, we know that the changes in AMD branding didn’t stay at the top end of cards. So claiming that the program was just about having the best GPU technology is nonsense when you’re talking about lower end cards and benchmarks. It’s also nonsense to say that GPP was about Nvidia fans getting Nvidia Tech because the cards are branded with Nvidia or Radeon and I doubt many people make that mistake.
With GPP, we asked our partners to brand their products in a way that would be crystal clear. The choice of GPU greatly defines a gaming platform. So, the GPU brand should be clearly transparent – no substitute GPUs hidden behind a pile of techno-jargon.
Brand their products in a crystal clear way like Nvidia logo, by changing gaming brands to only fit the Nvidia branding. I find this absolutely insulting to consumers and gamers, implying that consumer choice is a substitute and we wouldn’t be able to decipher technical jargon. Technical jargon being brands and model numbers.
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.
So which partners didn’t agree? A product promise to gamers is that the card will provide a good experience for the money and both Nvidia and AMD do that at their MSRP price points. I’m sorry if I believe that the consumer should be responsible for researching a product, which includes benchmarks, before buying the product. It sounds like they’re pulling the plug on gpp because they’re unable to provide an answer to criticisms that flat-out denies them. I don’t understand how media relations has anything to do with engineering.
This is a great time to be a GeForce partner and be part of the fastest growing gaming platform in the world. The GeForce gaming platform is rich with the most advanced technology. And with GeForce Experience, it is “the way it’s meant to be played.”
Sounds like a great time to be a partner, just after pulling the plug on a program because it was too hard to respond to legitimate criticism. Now we go back to marketing status quo. Throw it under the rug and pretend nothing happened.
Written by Jared Williamson
