NVIDIA Unveils Project Shield Handheld
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Jan 8, 2013 01:44 JST
- Tags: Announcements, Controllers, Google, Nvidia, PC Gaming, Project Shield, Technology, Valve
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.
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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 :D
The German dude
Looks like a great hardware for toilet gaming, other than that I can't see any other use for it.
Real gamers wire a big screen on the toilet.
matter of fact i DO have a tv in the toilet, no console... yet
Silly you. Real gamers use bottles.
Real gamers use adult diapers
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
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)
Are you stupid? The same use of a PSP but with better games
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.
Osborne 1 of the 201X gamer indeed
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.
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.
I already have my laptop for toilet gaming.
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.
Don't forget to clean the keys afterward.
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.
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.
I have a laptop connected to my TV that I put on the ground next to my bed.
I have all the bases covered.
Oh and my bed is a futon, so yup.
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.
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
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
First, Ouya. Then Valve. Now Nvidia?
I wonder why more people trying to jump into the console market.
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.
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.
PC gaming dead? Oh, that was a good one.
http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
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.
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.
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.