LG's new TVs will have Stadia and GeForce Now built-in

LG announced today at (the all-digital) CES 2021 that its latest TV line will come with apps built-in for Google's Stadia and NVIDIA's GeForce Now game streaming services. This is the latest move by LG to capture the emerging gaming TV market via its WebOS platform.

After seeing its success in the gaming market with last year's low-latency OLED TVs, LG is taking the natural next step with its latest (C1, G1, B1, etc.) units. This is welcome news for those of us who mainly use their Chromecast to play Stadia or who desperately want GeForce Now on their big screens but aren't willing to buy NVIDIA's Shield set-top box.

It's raining games — Google has repeatedly promised that Stadia would be ramping up its availability in the first half of the year, coming to places like Android TV. NVIDIA has similarly kept investing in GeForce Now, which is seen by many as an "open" alternative to closed streaming ecosystems, as it allows for many different storefronts and can play titles from a user's existing game library (with publisher approval, natch). Currently, both services are mainly used on iOS/iPadOS (through Safari), Android, MacOS, and Windows.

First of many — LG is the first company to make such an announcement, though Sony's new units will likely also have these services available, as they all run Google TV. Naturally, Sony prefers that you skip the streaming options and drop an additional $400-$500 on a PlayStation 5, so it's made no announcements on this front.

Pause — It's not yet known if these apps will come to LG's older TVs, such as the popular CX, GX, etc. line from 2020, but the company has no interest in advertising that when trying to get you to buy a new TV.