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Tag: Nvidia Shield

  • Valve Is Porting Portal To The Nvidia Shield

    Nobody really takes Android gaming that seriously. Ouya tried to appeal to the core gamer with its Kickstarter-backed platform, but it has pretty much fizzled out at this point. Despite this, Nvidia is still trying to make hardcore Android gaming a thing with its Shield platform, but it’s really only good for streaming PC games to a handheld device. Now Valve and Nvidia have teamed up to make Android gaming far more appealing.

    Nvidia announced this week that it’s working with Valve to bring Portal to the Shield. The new version of Portal will be built on Android, but will apparently be exclusive to the Shield. In other words, you’re going to have to pick up Nvidia’s pricey Android handheld if you want to play Portal on the go.

    Valve Is Porting Portal To The Nvidia Shield

    “Nvidia has created a very powerful and unique device with Shield,” said Doug Lombardi at Valve. “Our companies have a strong history working together and we’re looking forward to Portal‘s arrival on Shield.”

    Those worried that Valve would just bring a stripped down puzzle-only experience to the Shield shouldn’t be. It sounds like Portal on the Shield will be a near-perfect port of the PC title with all the content intact. That’s good news for those who bought a Shield expecting great Android games and have thus far used it as a handheld emulation machine.

    If Portal does well on the Shield, it very may well convince other developers to make Shield specific titles for Nvidia’s handheld. Who knows – we may just see the Shield becoming a powerful player in both the Android and dedicated gaming handheld markets.

    Image via Nvidia

  • Nvidia Shows Off Shield’s ‘Play Anywhere’ Capability

    While the gaming world readies itself for the upcoming next-gen gaming console war, there’s another, less-discussed fight for aimed at PC gamers brewing. If you follow the gaming industry, you’ve already heard of Valve’s upcoming line of Steam Boxes, but they are not the only PC gaming giant targeting the “stream your PC games to other devices” market. Chief among these challengers is the already-available Nvidia Shield. Although Nvidia is positive about the performance of their handheld device, the fact that the commercial exists suggests market saturation is not as high as the company would want.

    (Yes, the Shield also plays Android games, but the focus of this post, and Nvidia’s ad, is on streaming PC games.)

    Granted, it is the time of the year to focus on holiday sales, but Nvidia’s ad is presenting the Shield as something of a new discovery. It might help if they put some of the focus on the solid ratings the device has been getting, especially as a device for streaming PC games to other output devices. Nevertheless, if you were unaware or unsure of what the main draw for the Nvidia Shield is, after watching their latest video for it, the confusion will be gone.

    If you’re a PC gamer who wants to stream their games to other devices and you don’t want to pay the potentially steep price for a Steam Box, Nvidia has a device just for you. Yes, most hardcore PC gamers already understand the process of transferring their gameplay to another output device like a 52-inch plasma television. This, however, is normally accomplished with HDMI wires, whereas the Shield streams games via the owner’s WiFi network. For those of you wondering about Android games being supported by the Shield’s gamepad, Nvidia is addressing this, too:

    Today, Nvidia will announce that it has “mapped” hundreds of new games not originally designed for the Shield to the device’s controls. In other words, the company has made it possible for the console to play a greater variety of games without the involvement of those games’ developers.

    Does such knowledge help with your decision to purchase an Nvidia Shield? Let us know what you think.

    [Lead image courtesy of Nvidia]

  • Nvidia Announces SHIELD Price Drop

    Nvidia Announces SHIELD Price Drop

    While the video game world is primarily focusing on the upcoming iteration of the console wars–PS4!!! No!!! XBox One!!!!–some other companies that are making moves of their own, all in effort to bring PC/mobile gaming to additional outlets. One such entry, the Nvidia SHIELD, is primarily focused on attracting Android gamers. That, however, does not mean Nvidia has forgotten about PC gamers, otherwise known as the demographic that helped make the Nvidia brand enough capital to attempt something like the SHIELD.

    Before that, however, the news of day concerning the upcoming handheld/home entertainment alternative to Sony/Microsoft has to do with the announced price drop. When the SHIELD was first announced, the suggested retail prices was $350. That is until the following post showed up on Nvidia’s Facebook page:

    We’ve heard from thousands of gamers that if SHIELD’s price was $299, we’d have a home run. So we’re changing the price to $299. If you’ve already pre-ordered SHIELD, you’ll be charged the new, lower price. You will only be charged when the product ships.

    As for device’s appeal for PC gamers, a quick look at the information page Nvidia established reveals the SHIELD certainly has something to offer for those who may want to leave the security of the computer monitor: owners can stream some of their PC games to the handheld device. While the service will still be in beta when the SHIELD is shipped, the concept certainly has potential:

    Play your favorite PC games on a full-size controller with ultra-low latency thanks to SHIELD’s game-speed Wi-Fi and the fast performance of GeForce GTX GPUs.

    Of course, some PC gamers may not be comfortable with leaving their mouse/keyboard setup for something resembling a traditional handheld gaming device, but the idea of seamless stream of some favorite PC games to the palm of a player’s hand is also very attractive. In order to access SHIELD’s PC streaming capabilities, potential owners must have the following under the hood of their gaming rig:

    System Requirements for PC Game Streaming:
    > GPU: GeForce GTX 650 or higher desktop GPU (Notebook GPUs are not supported at this time)
    > CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 3.1GHz or AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.8GHz or higher
    > System Memory: 4GB or higher
    > Software: GeForce Experience™ application and latest GeForce drivers
    > OS: Windows 8 or Windows 7
    > Routers: 802.11a/g router (minimum). 802.11n dual band router (recommended). A list of recommended routers will be provided at launch.

    While the majority of that is standard for many gamers, the fact that you have to have a higher end Nvidia graphics card may deter some potential buyers, especially if they are buying it to stream their PC games. If some consumers have to spend another $150 or so to access that particular feature, they could abandon their potential purchase. Currently, Nvidia has a list of featured games on their information page. They include:

    Batman: Arkham City
    Borderlands 2
    Dishonored
    Metro: Last Light
    Resident Evil 6
    Skyrim

    Considering the infancy of the SHIELD, it makes sense that there are a limited number of PC games, however, that is quite an impressive launch list. For more about the SHIELD, check Nvidia’s demonstration video:

  • Nvidia Shield Launches This June For $350

    At CES 2013, Nvidia announced Project Shield – an Android-based handheld that could also stream PC games onto its 5-inch display. Now it’s been five months since its reveal, and Nvidia is almost ready to unleash its stab at the dedicated Android gaming machine market.

    Nvidia announced today that Project Shield is now simply called Shield. The GPU maker also announced that it would be available this June for $350. For the price, you’ll be getting what is essentially a luxury item among Android devices.

    So, has anything changed from when Nvidia first announced the device? Not at all. Here’s the full spec sheet from Nvidia:

  • Tegra 4 – The world’s fastest mobile processor delivers rich graphics and unbeatable performance thanks to 72 GPU cores, four CPU cores and 2GB of RAM
  • Console-grade controller – Precise control thanks to dual analog joysticks, a full-sized D-Pad, left and right analog triggers, full-sized bumpers and A/B/X/Y buttons
  • Multi-touch display – 5-inch, 720p retinal multi-touch display for high-fidelity visuals
  • Integrated speakers – Custom, bass reflex, tuned port audio system – we think this is SHIELD’s sleeper feature
  • Wi-Fi – 802.11n 2X2 MIMO game-speed Wi-Fi for game streaming
  • Pure Android – Latest Android Jelly Bean operating system from Google, for access to Android games and apps
  • There’s more – We put into SHIELD everything we would want in a premium mobile gaming device: 16 GB memory, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a mini-HDMI output, micro-USB 2.0, a microSD storage slot, a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack.
  • The high specs make for a device that will be able to handle pretty much anything developers can throw at it. In fact, Nvidia has lined up a few major titles for its new handheld, including Double Fine’s Broken Age and Costume Quest. The former will also be available on the competing Ouya Android console, but the latter will be making its Android debut on Shield.

    Shield is available for pre-order now for those who are on Nvidia’s mailing list. For everybody else, pre-orders will open on May 20 on Nvidia’s online store as well as Newegg, GameStop, Micro Center and Canada Computers.