You can now play Fortnite on Discord without downloading the game, here’s how

Nvidia, Discord, and Epic Games have partnered to let users play Fortnite instantly on Discord servers through a new

cloud gaming

experiment. This feature, which will be showcased at Gamescom (set to be held on August 20 in Cologne, Germany), will allow people to try the game without needing to download it or even create an account. The new capability is part of a significant upgrade to

Nvidia

's GeForce Now service, reviving the "try-before-you-buy" model that was a core idea behind early cloud gaming services like Gaikai and Google's Stadia. Soon, more game demos are expected to become available on Discord. Commenting on the new game demo feature,

Andrew Fear

, Nvidia’s product marketing director, said to The Verge: “You can simply click a button that says ‘try a game’ and then connect your Epic Games account and immediately jump in and and join the action, and you’ll be playing Fortnite in seconds without any downloads or installs.”

How Discord’s Fortnite demo feature will work

In a video shared on YouTube, Nvidia has shown how Discord’s game demo feature will work. The video confirms that the Fortnite demo is currently limited to a 30-minute free trial. However, users will only need to click a “try a game” button and link their Epic Games account to start playing directly within Discord. (Cue: 18.19)

This means the process is not entirely login-free as players will still need an Epic Games account to play the game. Also, it remains uncertain whether Nvidia, Epic, and Discord will make the demo available beyond Gamescom. “We've had a vision for players trying new games instantly inside of Discord, and GeForce Now has proven itself to be the leader in high-performance cloud gaming to make this possible. Demoing this with Fortnite is a great way for us to prove this concept out and create a compelling experience for players in the future. We've been actively working with Nvidia to bring this new experience to life,”Stanislav Vishnevskiy

, Discord’s co-founder, noted in the video.Nvidia is framing it as a “technology announcement” rather than a finalised feature, with the hope that game publishers and developers might show interest in integrating it into their titles.Earlier, when Sony acquired Gaikai in 2012, it also hinted at offering instant try-before-you-buy demos on the PlayStation 4, but that plan never materialised. Years later, Gaikai’s founder explained that publishers weren’t necessarily on board with the idea.