NVIDIA announced Project SHIELD, a handheld gaming device based on its Tegra 4 GPU.
Project SHIELD is a pure Android device so it is able to play all existing Android games out of the box and it has full access to Google Play store. The handheld also doubles as a wireless receiver and controller for PCs powered by NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 650 GPUs or higher.
Project SHIELD resembles a traditional console controller with a relatively large screen attached to its top. The handheld hosts an integrated 5-inch, 1280x720 HD retinal multitouch screen with 294 dpi, but it can also be connected to big screen TV.
Project Shield is a console-style gaming controller with the buttons, triggers, dual joysticks and single directional pad you’re familiar with if you’ve ever touched an Xbox or PlayStation controller. It’s comfortable for gameplay and everything responds well for a prototype, though the joysticks and triggers feel like they could use a bit more tuning before the device heads to retail.
The most tremendous feature of Project Shield is its ability to stream PC games (including those found on the popular gaming service Steam) from a PC in your home, to the device’s 5-inch display. I playedNeed For Speed Most Wanted, streamed from a PC, and it went smoothly, with no noticeable lag or degradation in visual quality while playing. But the PC streaming only works if your PC is on the same Wi-Fi network as Project Shield (i.e. no PC streaming outside of the home) and if the streaming PC has Nvidia’s GeForce GTX graphic processor installed.
The technology used to pull of this PC streaming — the interaction between the GeForce GTX and the Nvidia Tegra 4 processor inside of Project Shield — should show up in more of Nvidia’s graphics cards in the future. If that pans out, the best case scenario here is that this PC streaming capability will grow over time. The worst case scenario is that Project Shield will be used simply as an Android gaming console and nothing else — which, if priced right, wouldn’t be a horrible.
At the moment, Nvidia isn’t saying what Project Shield will cost. This decision will be key. Google’s Nexus 7, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Apple’s iPads have opened up an entirely new world of gaming in large part because they’re accessibly priced. Project Shield, which Nvidia says will be renamed before it officially goes on sale, offers the promise of the best features of a tablet married with console-quality gaming. It’s an attractive concept, but getting a lot of consumers to pick up a Shield instead of a tablet, or a Nintendo 3DS, will be tough if the price tag is too high.
