After massive criticism, Nvidia is discontinuing the GeForce Partner Program (GPP). The accusation was that Nvidia was trying to bind partners more closely to itself. Competitor AMD was thus further pushed out of the market. Nvidia claims that these are false information.
What happened? Through the GeForce Partner Program, partners received exclusive information and hardware. In return, however, they marketed AMD and Nvidia hardware separately. In one case, this even went so far that Asus wanted to sell AMD products only under the new brand “Arez”. Nvidia has now officially discontinued this program.
What is the justification? In an official blog post, Nvidia justifies this step with the numerous false information about the GeForce Partner Program that are circulating. Instead of combating these false reports, they prefer to discontinue the program.
What is the GeForce Partner Program?
From Nvidia’s perspective: The selling partners should be supported in marketing and sales. The goal of the GPP is that gamers know exactly what they are buying and have a clear choice. Therefore, Radeon and GeForce should also be marketed differently.
From the critics’ perspective: According to AMD, the GPP is taking away the freedom of choice from the player. Nvidia is also accused of allocation. This means that they disadvantage companies that do not participate in the GPP. They achieve this by providing these companies with fewer chips. As a result, they can produce fewer graphics cards, which reduces their revenue. Nvidia is accused of exploiting its strong market position to become even stronger and thereby aim for a monopoly position.
Why is it being discontinued right now? The GeForce Partner Program was under massive criticism. In addition, the European Commission and the Federal Trade Commission were already investigating Nvidia’s program. If the allegations were proven true, the discontinuation would have just been a matter of time.
