When you fire up your favorite game, you’re playing it instantly. That’s what it means to be Game Ready on GeForce NOW. The experience has been optimized for cloud gaming and includes Game Ready Driver performance improvements. NVIDIA manages the game updates and patches. And when a game supports RTX, you can play it on GeForce NOW with beautifully ray-traced graphics and DLSS 2.0.

The GeForce NOW library is ever-growing. In an effort to help spotlight the games that are coming to the service, we’re moving to a monthly cadence for announcing new instant access games. Games will continue to be released every week – with new game launches available day-and-date, and back catalog games released each Thursday – but our members, and your readers, will now be able to learn about what’s coming a little further in advance.

Brace yourself: GFN Thursday brings 13 more games to the GeForce NOW library, including the entire Stronghold franchise from Firefly Studios.

Stronghold Warlords joined the GeForce NOW library when it was released on March 8, streaming from the cloud for GeForce NOW members. This week’s news includes a free update coming to all Stronghold Warlords players on April 13 that adds a new AI character, AI invasions, and a new Free Build map.

Not only are the Stronghold titles new on GeForce NOW this week, they’re also on sale on Steam! Making this GFN Thursday the perfect time to check out some of PC gaming’s best strategy games.

Members can also look forward to a pair of new day-and-date releases joining the service — Aron’s Adventure and The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV — playable across their supported devices from their favorite digital game stores.

This week’s complete list of games, including discounts on the Stronghold franchise, includes: 

• Aron’s Adventure (day-and-date release on Steam, April 7)
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV (day-and-date release on Steam, April 9)
• EARTH DEFENSE FORCE: IRON RAIN (Steam)
• Spintires (retired from Steam, but if you own it, you can stream it on GeForce NOW)
• Stronghold Crusader HD (80% Off on Steam for a limited time)
• Stronghold 2: Steam Edition (60% Off on Steam for a limited time)
• Stronghold HD (70% Off on Steam for a limited time)
• Stronghold Crusader 2 (90% Off on Steam for a limited time)
  • Stronghold Crusader 2 DLC - 20% to 50% Off on Steam for a limited time
• Stronghold 3 Gold (70% Off on Steam for a limited time)
• Stronghold Kingdoms (free-to-play on Steam)
  • Stronghold Kingdoms (Starter Pack) (70% Off on Steam for a limited time)
• Stronghold Legends: Steam Edition (60% Off on Steam for a limited time)
• UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late[cl-r] (Steam)

As always, you can visit the games page for a complete list of the games available on GeForce NOW.