NVIDIA is testing a new customer program called Verified Priority Access. At first glance, its main interest is a kind of “wire cutter” allowing to buy an RTX 4090 graphics card (and probably the following ones) by being served in a priority way and without waiting for the famous “drops” and stocks of the founders edition. To be eligible you must have GeForce Experience and fill in all the data. Some will recognize the similarities with the EVGA Elite program which was supposed to allow the brand to serve its customers in priority during the shortage… Others will worry to see Nvidia switching to direct sales.
Indeed, since the shortage of cards is normally behind us, we can also wonder about the ambition of Nvidia with this program. Because here is a fear repeated many times by some manufacturers that is now materializing… From being a chip vendor, Nvidia is gradually turning into a card vendor. The Geforce Experience is an extremely powerful Trojan horse for scanning gamers’ habits and making commercial proposals. From there, it’s only a small step to imagine other possibilities, such as cross-merchandising, games with preferential access…
Nvidia’s official communication (USA, France, Germany and other eligible countries)
Invited users will receive a notification embedded in the GeForce Experience application that generates a unique URL – connecting guests to a Founders Edition partner in select regions. Currently, verified priority access tests include: Best Buy (U.S.), Scan (U.K.), NBB (Germany and Netherlands) and LDLC (France, Italy and Spain).
So Nvidia seems determined to capitalize more and more on its brand with the end customer…It remains to be seen how its partners will “digest” this gradual shift towards direct sales.