NVIDIA To Give Away The Witcher 3 To GTX Titan X Owners Who Participate in Software Beta
by Ryan Smith on May 19, 2015 6:30 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- GeForce
- NVIDIA
- Game Bundles
When NVIDIA announced their most recent GeForce game bundle, notably absent was the GTX Titan X. With Titan products typically uncontested in holding the performance crown and priced as a luxury product, NVIDIA rarely has a need to offer game bundles with the flagship cards. For that reason, the latest revelation from NVIDIA has come as a bit of a surprise.
Effective immediately, NVIDIA is going to be bundling The Witcher 3 with the GTX Titan X in a roundabout manner. Furthermore this offer applies to both new and existing GTX Titan X owners, so those buyers who have picked up GTX Titan X cards in the last two months are eligible for a post-purchase freebie, making this one of the only other cases of a retroactive bundle.
So how does all of this work? Officially NVIDIA is offering copies of the game not with the purchase of a GTX Titan X, but rather as an incentive for participating in a software beta test. The software being beta tested? A new feature to redeem game codes through GeForce Experience, with The Witcher 3 being the first product to use the system.
In any case, since the beta is open up to all GTX Titan X owners, this ends up being a de facto retroactive game bundle for the card, as the promotion covers all current cards and runs for the next month, through June 19th. As for NVIDIA’s motivations, while I don’t doubt that this is in part a serious effort to beta test the new redemption system, at the same time it’s a back-door method of launching a game bundle for their $1000 flagship card without making their existing customers irate. With AMD making their own waves today, it’s certainly an interesting coincidence.
Anyhow, GTX Titan X can find the full program details over at NVIDIA’s website. The promotion page includes detailed instructions on how to collect the Witcher 3 code through the system, and activate it through GoG and NVIDIA’s redemption system.
Finally, the fact that NVIDIA is testing a new redemption system signals an interesting shift in how future game bundles may work. While NVIDIA has not commented on this bundle so far – in fact they haven’t even announced it on GeForce.com yet – I suspect what we’re looking at is a beta test for how NVIDIA intends to distribute all bundles in the future. A distribution system through GeForce Experience not only increases the user base for that software, but more importantly it smooths over some of the logistics of bundling games. Retailers would no longer need to distribute vouchers, and based on NVIDIA’s description of how the bundling system works, it looks like this could shut down the grey market for reselling bundle redemption codes as well.
Source: NVIDIA (via SH SOTN)
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chizow - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link
Awesome, this is why Nvidia's the best in the business. Going through the process now.chizow - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link
Done, process is a bit more convoluted than it needs to be but it all worked within minutes of starting it. Most interesting is I didn't have to enter any info to verify Titan X ownership, they must be reading the BIOS or some other low level microcode to verify unique ownership and code redemption. Some notes:1) You need to download the latest version of GFE which should be 2.4.3.31 Checking updates in GFE and even the Beta GFE/Driver toggles don't seem to trigger this, at least not immediately.
2) Once you see the rewards icon in the upper right, the rest of the instructions were pretty straightforward. The AT redirect link also seems broken atm so you you can go to http://www.geforce.com/titan-x-geforce-experience-... if you need to.
Its really interesting Nvidia has basically taken on some digital distribution responsibility on their own.
Short-term, I think this will be the way Nvidia distributes their game promotions going forward so they don't have to deal with retailer backlash over them (they are a CS nightmare from what I have seen, when promotions don't overlap with new releases), as it allows them to retroactively give rewards.
Long-term, I believe Nvidia is looking to add digital distribution as a revenue stream in tandem with GRID, Shield, and their desktop PC products. They have already got some deal in place with Steam that allows you to buy a game on Steam, and either play it through your Steam library locally, or to stream it off a GRID host.
Anyways, thanks for the heads-up on this Ryan! And thanks Nvidia for once again doing right by some of their most spendy customers! :)
testbug00 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link
I think this is more for game promotions. Although, I would love to see Nvidia contribute in the game distribution service. I believe they would offer good customer service, and, unlike GOG, probably get newer games (likely be implementing some form of DRM sadly) but also have customer service on par with GOG.Steam needs to fix itself, be fixed, or fade away. I am one of those who believes that another games bubble is coming, due to insanely large AAA budgets, and also due to Steam's glut of POS games. Or games that don't include all the files needed to start the game at launch. Does Steam not even check if a game opens anymore.
[insert few hundred pages of 12 point word documents here ranting about Steam and talking about how even Origin has better customer service. EA BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE THAN SOMEONE ELSE. How is that even possible?!?!?!?!?]
dragonsqrrl - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link
Steam is a great service and I've never had any issues with it or any of the games I've purchased through it, BUT it's a well established fact that IF you're ever unfortunate enough to encounter an issue with steam that requires you to contact Valve for a resolution, you're basically screwed. There's no excuse for a company like Valve with a service like Steam to have such terrible customer service, none.testbug00 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link
I've had to deal with it two times. After the second time, I said f*ck it. I did open Steam recently to download a set of 3 games I bought through a key reseller. I saved money, but, sadly, that probably means the publisher got less money. However, well worth Steam getting no money. Or, less money.Well, I suppose I could have pirated the games... Same level of customer service, probably better actually. .__.
I will say, if Steam's only problem was customer service, I would still use them. However, their letting practically anything be published, and almost anything stay on the store. And that's from games that open. Some games don't even launch with all the files required to open the damn game. [rant continues for years]
piiman - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link
" Some games don't even launch with all the files required to open the damn game. [rant continues for years]"What do you expect, game to not have files? That's not Steams fault that's the dev's fault and it's not even a fault. You just sound like some lame Steam hater. "the games on Steam have files, lots of files! files ! files ! why can't we have no files!? lol
chizow - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link
I guess we'll see, I think it is the precursor to more than that. Look at their GRID service for example, they are basically using a library/seat license system where you check out 1 key at a time. They buy the key which allows them to run a single game instance on their cloud server for the GRID end-user, not unlike a cybercafe.Eventually, if the service gets big enough, they may sell you the license key and maintain it directly without getting Steam involved.
As for the rest, I never understood the preferences over one digitial distribution medium over another. They're a pretty basic service, they inventory and keep track of my games. Big deal. If I have to have one game for any particular service, sure its a nuisance but its not going to deter me from buying the game if I really want to play it.
5150Joker - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link
Finally some love for us Titan X owners! Though I own two of them so shouldn't I get two codes? :DTremFury - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link
You can :)http://www.overclock.net/t/1546747/official-nvidia...
Ranger101 - Thursday, May 21, 2015 - link
Ahh Chizshill, Anandtech forums would indeed be a much less amusing space without your predictable rants! I guess the Nvidia paycheque pretty much guarantees they will continue.Thanks bro keep it up :)