Nvidia has revealed “Project Shield,” an Android-based handheld capable of remotely playing PC games, at CES 2013.
One of the Shield’s major features is that it it is capable of playing games from a PC, including those distributed on Steam, potentially giving it access to an enviable selection of obscure indie games and console-PC ports.
The merits of this system will likely hinge on how far away from the PC it is practical to play graphically intense titles – Nvidia’s CEO already having ominously suggested that only with future devices will anyone be able to play “beyond the house,” raising the obvious question of what use any PC gamer has for a tiny screened handheld only usable in the same house as the PC.
Its standalone graphical capabilities come from Nvidia’s newly unveiled Tegra 4 mobile chipset, and will give it access to all the gaming glories of Google Play and various other mobile applications.
The console itself boasts a 5 inch (12.7cm) 720p touch screen, although when connected to a TV it will be able to support next-generation “4K” ultra-HD output (though this would apparently require it to be in the same house as the PC powering the output…).
Another major feature is its “full-size console-grade game controller,” with its chunky build and styling bearing more than a passing resemblance to that of the Xbox – and probably destined to be the inevitable butt of “Xbox huge” mockery, as it is in fact even larger than an Xbox controller.
Nvidia’s CEO showed off a working version of the handheld at CES, but has not announced a release schedule.
Nvidia also unveiled the Nvidia GRID, “cloud” gaming hardware which can run PC games whilst allowing them to be played on lesser devices such as TVs, tablets and smartphones (and presumably PCs as well) – although few doubt Nvidia’s competence with hardware, there are some concerns as to whether this ends up being another OnLive.
it’s sad how many of you fail to see that this allows you to play aaa titles anywhere and you don’t need to stay at the computer -.-
but you do still need to be close to the PC and you sacrifice graphics, control and sound.
Control looks worse than one for the original xbox; Screen mounted like that screams “BREAK ME”.
Control looks worse than one for the original xbox; Screen mounted like that screams “BREAK ME”.
Only 1 Con, Its android Based x_x!.
Wtf whith Nvidia.
Can I legally adopt this baby?
Could make for an interesting portable emulator. Are there good Android based NES/SNES emulators?
at least it has more games than the vita
This could’ve been an excellent controller, because it combines the Xbox’s with some of PS’s, the analog stick position and flat face buttons. But they didn’t take their D-Pad style (far superior) :/
Controller is big and heavy too, must get taxing after a few hours :/
Controller review over
Fuck, and we still don’t have a software to at least let us stream games from our gaming PC to other, less powerfull windows PCs. I think that should come first
LOL!! Skyrim! xD! thats gonna be laggy :v
So basically it is the same thing as smartphone with gamepad grip with software for virtual desktop installed, how innovative.
Toilet gaming ahoy! I think this is a cool bit of tech, and with the right exploitation could really be something. Next gen is starting to look exciting, no thanks at all to the (current) Big 3.
not buying this.. looks like it’s easier to break than the laptop
Oh, so they’re finally releasing the N-Gage 2…..
Screw what anyone says, I’d buy this!
If I can run an emulator on it, then perhaps it’s worth looking in to…
Hi there, N-gage 2013.
nvidia only came up with this because they royally fucked their selves when they tried to exploit sony & ms.
For those who don’t know, the xbox1 was dropped after nvidia & intel refused to sell cheaper chips to ms & refused to license a wrapper compatible with rival ati, when picked them over nvidia to power the 360.
Then nvidia tried pulling the same shit with ps3, which is why ati will not be the gpu manufacturer for all 3 next generation consoles.
that controller looks very uncomfortable
I’m guessing one of the ultimate purposes of this will be to allow multiple people to collectively play games off a single PC. Instead of your WoW party being scattered all over the neighborhood or world, you can all be gathered in one guy’s living room. And when they get around to making it so you can play anywhere, you’ll all be gathered at your favorite pizzeria or fast-food restaurant.
i am actually interested in Nvidia’s “grid”. think it would be sweet to build a powerful server and run LAN parties on that thing and you can use any crummy laptop or desktop.
The Problem: It runs Android, which is totally inefficient.
Hell of a lot more efficient than ios. At least you can do about anything you want with droid.
Unfortunately this post is misunderstanding the hardware a bit, it’s main purpose is an ANDROID gaming device that is more powerful (and more battery-packed) than a smartphone, so you buy this if your really into high end demanding android games (indeed there aren’t that many, particularly with UDK devs requiring a full UE3 licence to target the android platform). The PC remote play features are an added bonus, an afterthought, not the main focus of the device. Indeed if that was all it could do it would be useless (and certainly wouldn’t need all the powerful hardware in it to manage just a video stream). Additionally, while they did say 4K output, it can only play videos at that resolution, not run games at it (or at least, certainly not any demanding ones). The HDMI output is so you can play Android games on a larger screen, and while it may be possible to play your PC games through that as well on another screen in the house, it’s unclear why anyone would want to do that, and give up superior visuals, performance, resolution, and game input, by playing a PC game, on some TV from the HDMI, streaming to this, in the same house.
It’s an Android gaming device in the shape of a controller with some other features, not a pc controller with a screen. More nvidia’s answer to Ouya or GameStick than anything else.
The 1st item of The Jetsons has arrived. Now we need houses built on posts in the air (to protect from those friggen mexican burglars) and hovering disks to stand on that move back and forth to the house and ground.
… I don’t want to game on androids, if I did I would be buying a cheap tablet so the only thing I’d use this for is streaming my PC to it/my TV.. but honestly I’d rather just plug my PC directly to the TV or with wireless HDMI from the next room, to eliminate any sort of input lag and use e
Wow, whichever idiot green-lit this at nvidia is probably gonna get fired.
Yeah. What are innovation and fresh ideas good for anyway? Everything should just stay the same and become stale for millenia.
The German dude
Makes me proud to be a PC Gamer. Sadly these days all you see is them lightweight (Cr)apple products.
The reason people buy (Cr)Apple products is they do not have the time to fix their computer all the time because they need work to be done!
What they lack in hardware they make up for in price-point! It’s like paying for something awesome, but without the hassle of actually getting something awesome!
Looks like one of those cheap third-party gadget that will either disappear as fast as it appeared or end in the bargain bin.
Fuck, that controller looks worse than the original xbox1 controller.
500 dollar price tag also..
Just move along people, nothing to see here..
Necessary since NVIDA will get no money from game sales. They have to sell this high to cover their costs, while other console and handheld producers rake in the money with game sales. You will be able to play an incredibly diversity of games with this thing, with it running a non-modified android OS.
Personally, I am exited. I really like the technical side of this thing. Same goes for the upcoming steam box running linux.
The German dude
Oh, and Ouya of course. Can’t wait till that package arrives 😀
The German dude
miku miku dance dojinshi games and now Polygon love 2 portable?!!!!
I really like Nvidia and hope they live long and prosper. That being said, I hope they didn’t invest too much into this failure.
That is actually a pretty cool idea.
Stupid. Casuals, stop ruining my PC gaming experience!
>implying casuals got 500 to drop on a retarded controller with display
a retard is you
So are you.
>trying to greentext lel
How’s that virginity and back problems treating ya?
I don’t even know what the fuck this back problems thing is about, but let me jump back to this virgin comment:
Sankaku complex poster, defending console gaming, calling out people as virgins. RIGHT.
Gameboy with a flash player and networking. Now nVidia can try and make people make use of cloud gaming services.
It’s a stepping stone on the course to real-life Sword Art Online, true story. Just be happy with playing *ZOMG* Dishonored and Borderlands, Need For Speed and X-com. All are the epitomes of replayability on the road to school/work and back.
Well think about this, once 4G connection becomes widespread, you could theoretically remotely connect to your computer across the mobile network and stream-play games that you own on your PC from across the country.
Of course, you’ll preferably need a data plan with unlimited bandwidth to really make use of it, but it could become something quite popular. Play your PC games away from home.
I myself could see a very cool use for something like this if the price was right & software made to take advantage of it…have the main game video feed to your big screen, and have a different graphical display on the controller. You could put all the things that clutter up a screen like health meters, ammo, enemy radar, etc and have that on the controller screen. For games like controlling mechs or technical natured games, you could move those things to the small screen & let the main screen be clear & pretty.
Don’t know if they could that with this controller, but for PC gaming I would be into something like that.
That reminds me of the WiiU
Yeah, same concept as Wii-U, but something for our high horsepower PC games would be cool. That would be interesting (if it was not too expensive)
The audio jack located at the back is a sign there is room for improvement
Well, it seems useless to me.
But if the future holds, as they say it, I will want it.
Because, NVidia. :V
Just one thing: WTF ?!
So where did they put the mouse and the keyboard?
well i for one think this is pretty cool will i buy it…. prolly never ever. But i like the direction in which it goes. Why not create a handheld that interacts with your computer, can boot it up, access it games make the pc run the games and make this device act as the game controller and monitor only from long distance.
in a sense thats like having a monitor and keyboard/mouse in some other room or house hooked up to nothing but yet you are still using it as if it was hooked up to your pc via remotely. cool to me.
i’d also imagine it t use less power that way since the pc is doing the major bulk of what you see on the screen,
First, Ouya. Then Valve. Now Nvidia?
I wonder why more people trying to jump into the console market.
I’ll never understand what’s so interesting about Ouya.
I can connect my tablet to a TV using a HDMI cable and boom, I’ve got all the android games on the big screen. Then I can use some app to use the Wiimote to play the games. Poof, I have Ouja now.
Hmm, yeah, but you’ll be fiddling a lot with weird drivers/applications, cables, etc, instead of just plugging in a console and playing. And you need a fast tablet to pull it all off.
Android consoles are fully customizable unlike ordinary gaming consoles and no one has yet made any viable android devices dedicated for gaming and home theater use so there’s room in the market.
>x86 coding
>risc processors
gee, I cannot imagine why there are to viable anderoid set top units capable of playing your pc games on.
And thats whit everyone sayin consoles are dead… also dont forget the playstick that they revealed recently, is basically an less powefull OUYA but whit the size of a pendrive and a tiny portable controller
The desktop computer already is dead, which is why companies like onlive & this new trinket are popping up. Fact it, in a few years nvidia & ati won’t even bother designing highend videocards.
PC gaming dead? Oh, that was a good one.
http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
Yeah, sure. When I finally wanted to see better graphics in games I moved from my totally modern PS3 designed several years ago to a “dead” PC designed with the latest CPU, graphics card, and fat memory and hard drive space. Yeah, my new sleek PC sure feels dead compared to my PS3 I bought in 2007. LOL
If you say so, it must be true.
Do you hear that? It’s the echo of the market crash that almost killed gaming back when everyone and their dog was making shitty Atari games and they buried tens of thousands of copies of ET in mass graves.
Somehow I don’t think what this generation needs is 10 consoles to choose from. [conspiracy theory]Maybe it’s a false flag operation from PC giants like Valve and nVidia to devalue the console market, crash it, and pull people back into PC gaming so instead of needing a new GPU every 8-12 years, they start needing one every 3 years again… [/conspiracy theory]
To clarify… The no. 1 seller isn’t the only success in the console wars. For instance, the DS and PSP were both successful, viable, profitable systems even if the DS won out for total sales (when I last saw…) However, making the big assumption that all these new Android consoles actually draw enough of the market to them, there’s a theoretical point where instead of a million consoles sold by each company (just a sample, not total sales lol), there’s 100k here, 100k there, maybe 50k for some others, and maybe one or two are actually profitable, but most of them lose too many sales to all the others to be worthwhile.
After all, there’s a reason we no longer see game consoles by Magnavox, Mattel, Atari, Sega, etc. There’s only so many dollars out there for the lot of them.
One problem with your comparison is that all of those consoles died because all of the consoles had to have the games developed for each individual console so that meant there were fewer (and lower quality) games for the consoles. With that there was no reason for anyone to buy the consoles or the games.
This would be different since all games have the potential of running on all devices so it is just a choice on what one you pick and having the access to the entire library. It is just like with PC’s where there are many different manufacturers and system builders and it has been like that for a long time now. All of those Android based devices could survive and that even goes for very similar devices and is all based on preferences.
$$$$$$MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!!!!!!!!
And I hope they are successful. I would love to see some other companies shake things up & change the balance of power to be a little more distrubuted in the game industry.
Many products that fail are just a first step to changing things. People who don’t work in the tech sector don’t generally see the larger picture of why companies try to innovate & create new things, and thatthey are willing to fail in an attempt to have inmfluence. There is an old saying that if you are not living on the edge, you are not even living. In other words playing it safe will most definately lead to being passed up by the risk takers in business. I interpret all the negative comments as coming from those who have not experinced these thin gs professionally before. As someone who has worked in the tech sector for a long time, I know these things to be true. Companies like Apple wouldn’t be what they are today, if they didn;t know this and follow that doctrine. SOrry for the soapbox, but that’s how I see it as someone who has worked in Silicon Valley tech sector for many years.
Shake things up, huh…
People will only buy the Shield because they can’t live without their PC games when they go take a shit.
It’ll only work for PC games when you’re close to your PC, so when you leave home the functionality of it is reduced to being, essentially, a smartphone without the phone functionalities with built in hardware controls, like Xperia Play, a massive failure, another “android consoles/handhelds are the future of gaming” victim.
If you can play emulators on it, this could be a worth handheld.
From what i heard it will stream the games not run them localy, at least not games like ac3 and far cry 3
as long it can play eroge
So how does this connect, through wifi or a mobile network? Because either way is going to suck and be pretty useless (mobile network because you’re going to end up paying 60 dollars a month in service charges anyway).
There better be a terabite of harddrive space… the first system that has this wins….
So what type of battery does it have? Considering the size, i’m not to interested in hauling a car battery charger to keep this sucker charged.
Considering that a remote PC is doing all the heavy lifting it might actually have pretty good battery life for a change.
still got a fairly large led display attached to it, I doubt it can go more than 8 hours without a full charge.
That’s the jokes some people used to make about the PSP, that you’ll have to carry a car battery with you to keep it running for more than 6 hrs.
Look at everything now – 3 hrs of playing on a single charge suddenly became the “acceptable standard”
>3 hours
>acceptable standard
nope.avi
ask anyone who played through a jrpg on their psps if they thought it ‘acceptable’.
That’s why I put it in quotation marks, you braindead piece of shit
remember the game boy gray box i do and that was powered with AA batts and much heaver
I think the concept behind this is to make a handheld-console without making any official library. I think they want to make it so that you could play ANY PC game on the Shield. Might sound like a silly idea at first, but then again you could boot up an Nintendo, SNES, or Sega Emulator and BOOM, you got 1000s of games on the go. Or we could finally play a Touhou game on a Handheld System (I’d buy it just for that)! Same goes for Dating Sims or Visual Novels that we don’t get ported to US, Europe, or basically anywhere outside of Japan. I think it has the potential to be awesome, but we’ll need more details. It’s something I think we should be keeping our eyes on.
And why wouldn’t I want to play those on my big-screen pc instead of in a handheld?
Sometimes you want to sit on the couch or lay in bed, who knows maybe they dont feel like playing it on their tv(via pc) or have a laptop etc to play it in their bed.
Oh and my bed is a futon, so yup.
I have a laptop connected to my TV that I put on the ground next to my bed.
I have all the bases covered.
It seems like a sound concept if you can get a low enough lag connection.
some videos on it already with hands on
end to end lag is 100ms lower then most consoles looking at you PS3
You already have a shitton of emulators on most handheld devices.
DS, PSP, android-based devices… it’s all there. If you buy a piece of expensive hardware just to play 1000s of old games any cheaper device can play, you need to get your head examined.
Ps2 emulator here comes to mind, you need a 500$+ laptop to run games decently considering you can buy a working ps2 for around 50$ or so.
The PS1 is hacked.
And it’s not like you can only play emulators on a 500+ Laptop. That’s something most of use already have at home.
And spend more money buying the games, also, if you want only original games.
It’s cool. Can’t think of a use for it personally, since my gaming laptop is connected to my big TV, but glad to see people trying to make new things. Gamers should appreciate business that try new things instead of being brainwashed by Sony & MS branding.
just make it into a phablet and have the game controller feature a mount for it. Provide additional battery pack for the controller to charge the phablet while in game mode. (judging by the size of the controller the battery might provide extended playtime of 1-2 hours T_T)
This thing is DOA.
Aimed at a market that would have no use for it.
Thta’s what they said about every game or game hardware since the beginning. There is no need for any of it, but people like to buy cool gadgets if the price is right.
It’s not particularly cool and the difference is it is a massive downgrade.
Say for example the ipod could only be used in your house, it would not have sold well and even it would still be more useful then this thing.
Nvidia should just stick to what Nvidia does best. Leave the console stuff to the 3 competitors and let them duke it out.
I guess you’re really going to shit bricks when you go to the store to pick up your next gen consoles and the SteamBox is sitting on the shelf next to the PS4s and X720s…
That’d be Samsung, Apple, and who else? There’s a shift happening right now: people are dropping the dedicated portables for tablets and smartphones. There are even Android-based devices with buttons, as well as add-on controllers, so even lousy touch controls are not much of an issue.
I absolutely disagree, and totally despise that way of thinking. “Don’t try at all, and let the monopolies have a stranglehold on innovation”.
That’s just downright corporate brainwash thinking. Fanboys are the enemy of gamiong, because they hate change or innovation by any company they don’t have branded on their rear ends.
Maybe, but too many gaming console can bring a headache when the hot game are scattered all around different console.
It is already pain in ass to buy 3 gaming console (PC + PS3/XBOX360 + portable handheld)to enjoy variety good amount of AAA title, throw in Nvidia Shield in the equation can be very expensive.
I don’t need to own them all. I don’t care about playing every game that comes out. I would like to see more choice, like any other type of popular products. People don’t complain there are too many different car makers or TV makers or coffee makers or whatever on the market. It seems that gamers have bneen brainwashed into rejecting choice, and only wanting one brand to prevail (whichever one they have pledged allegience too). I think that is just silly. I don;t have any skin in the game with these companies, so to all of them I say bring on what you got. GO ahead & make something new…it is ok, we will forgive you for that outrage LOL.
Less of a problem when you have multiple devices based on the same operating system.
Looks like a great hardware for toilet gaming, other than that I can’t see any other use for it.
I’m wonder if it can be used as a peripheral for multiplayer. Would be nice to get the entire interface, including screen, for some casual gaming when you visit a friend.
Are you stupid? The same use of a PSP but with better games
It looks like it will soon be on the list of One of the biggest tech flops in history
But this is called too soon
(That said I can see future consoles going to this idea but not right now)
I was just about to say that,
also bathtub gaming
No thanks, I’ll stick to my Game Boy Pocket, which boasts quality gameplay and superior graphics.
Real gamers wire a big screen on the toilet.
Silly you. Real gamers use bottles.
Real gamers use adult diapers
matter of fact i DO have a tv in the toilet, no console… yet
That’s what I did once, and that was with one of those old tube TVs. Now this was long time ago when I was a kid (ps1 era), and the 30-40in tube tv was on one of those rolling dolly thingy with the ps1 on the bottom tray, so I rolled the entire thing in front of the bathroom door way and played it while on the toilet.
Once my tv broke down, so i hooked up my 360 to a tiny karaoke machine. It was a tiny screen and it was black and white but you best believe i was tear that ass up in COD. Oh and i used this on the crapper and in the tub
I already have my laptop for toilet gaming.
Don’t forget to clean the keys afterward.
Ouch, lap burn.
I use my smartphone for that, (DAMN superhexagon i cant go past 3 minutes yet)
It has HDMI output, so a expensive extension cord to your TV down stairs from your PC up stairs.
How about … like playing on huge TV / Beamer / In the cinema in 4k resolution, maybe…
4k is for Minecraft
Minecraft has the best looking 2D graphics on the market.
In fact the graphics are so good it almost looks 3D.
Osborne 1 of the 201X gamer indeed
Thanks for clearing that up.
..was wondering what the point of that thing was.
…That is actually a good use. Pretty much the only good use.
Is the gaming market heading towards “portable” gaming only future? Because I’d hate to live in a world where all of our games are hand-handled/portable.
I remember when the Gameboy used to be a console of its own, not a replacement to existing stuff. Consoles and handhelds used to exist in perfect harmony.
This whole “smartdevices are the future of gaming” mentality is really pissing me off.
Not to mention it uses android of all OSes to run… why can’t they be bothered making their own OS?
No one want to learn yet another OS to program for.
if they made there own os they would dilute the market and most likely make a lot less money but I wish they used ubuntu instead of android
Indie games also annoy me.
Back in the 90’s, independent devs used to just create silly and sometimes creative stuff that was “there” for anyone interested. Nowadays being an indie dev is “the next cool thing” and reusing old ideas from the 80’s and 90’s or old and forgotten flash and Shockwave (anyone remember Macromedia?) games and selling it as “the successor to Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies” is the quickest way for the devs to make cash.
Because fuck creativity. I’m just gonna make a clone of this old cat catapult flash game and call it Angry Birds.
Any resemblance to Wii U is simply a coincidence and totally unintended.
ha ha ha
Nintendo innovate, and everyone copy right away. If Nintendo is Apple, the company will be filthy richer than right now, from suing money they make.
A handheld that you can’t take out of the house? Well, this is going to be a complete failure.
or a first step into making something more useful.
Whats the problem of buying a handheld to play only in your home?
You certainly can take it out of the house, and use it to play Android games; and you can ALSO use it as a controller+screen to play games streamed from the computer.
It’s an Android based portable device that can also stream games from a PC. Kind of like the Vita with PS3 Remote Play.
It’s clearly designed for hardcore PC gamers. Now they can finally move the desktop, monitors and fridge out of the bathroom.
The problem with the logic of “finally they can now move their rig” forgets that we have had small powerful gaming laptops for years, and most PC games support controller input. My PC is smaller in profile than consoles, and blows them away in power.
>most pc games
dude, anything windows live cert supports 360 controllers. it’s a standard for virtually every title released since vista reared it’s fugly head.
Heh, “powerful” gaming laptop.
Fucking Sancon comments system
Think of the PSP, you hold it and play it.
A laptop you need to put on a stable surface to be able to use it at all, unless using it one-handed is enough.
The difference is that you can hold this with your hands and play at the same time, whereas a laptop needs to rest on a stable surface to allow you to hold a controller/use the keyboard/mouse.
Any hassle with additional peripherals that a laptop would create is gone. You just move from place to place holding this device like you would a PSP. Except with this you can play PC games.
The problem is, PSP and Vita can deliver high quality of game in or outside the house. While Nvidia Shield only in the house, while user stuck with regular android game in somewhere else.
I’m throwing my money at the screen.
Why is nothing happening right now?
because it’s going bust.
Damn! I should have thrown bills, not gold ingots.
Wait, what am I even typing I don’t know.
afgsfksfd
Can you play WoW on it? lol
Love, NEET Virgin
i’m a NVIDIAF@g but what is that thing.. lol
It’s the iPad all over again.
Great on the shitter, not great for anything else related to gaming.
Holy God that is Ugly.
why would u want it?
I can’t see who this is appealing to????!! People with money to burn maybe?
People like new gadgets. It appeals to all of us that say “f you” to MS, Sony, and the established big brands doing the same old same old.
Not enough buttons for wow…. D:
It could be done with a “chorded” input scheme: holding one or more trigger buttons before pressing a thumb button. The four triggers mean 16 combinations for switching between pages of spells for the four thumb buttons, so up to 64 spells. Text input for chat could also involve the left thumb, the directional pad doing something, not only the buttons for the right thumb.
“which can run PC games whilst allowing them to be played on lesser devices such as TVs”
wat