NVIDIA GeForce Partner Program Canned After Just Two Months

It was just a couple of months ago that NVIDIA launched its GeForce Partner Program, and now it's already coming to an end. NVIDIA announced over the weekend that it's "pulling the plug" on the Partner Program, which has been the subject of a lot of speculation since it launched. Though the company doesn't go into specifics, it says enough, suggesting that all of the speculation is behind this decision.

"A lot has been said recently about our GeForce Partner Program. The rumors, conjecture and mistruths go far beyond its intent," NVIDIA's John Teeple writes in a new blog post. "Rather than battling misinformation, we have decided to cancel the program." Teeple notes that GPP was launched as a way to ensure clarity and trasnparency for consumers, leaving little question about whether or not they were buying an NVIDIA card.

Apparently, this meant clear and obvious packaging from GPU manufacturers, with more promotion from NVIDIA itself in return. That was the basic idea, at least, but it didn't take long for rumors mentioning shady rules to begin cropping up. In short, these rumors claimed that those who signed up for the GeForce Partner Program had to sign exclusivity deals for their well-known graphics card lines.

NVIDIA, for its part, says these rumors aren't true. "They own their brands and GPP didn't change that," Teeple said of the manufacturers who joined the program. "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."

One could argue that GPU packaging was already fairly clear and left little confusion as to what consumers were actually buying, but with GPP shutting down, that's neither here not there at the moment. With the program now winding down, whether or not those rumors were true no longer matters. We'll see if the GeForce Partner Program – or something like it, at least – makes a return in the future, but for now, NVIDIA says it's going to focus on growing the GeForce brand further.