Nvidia announces portable Android-powered console
By
Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor
New console dubbed "Project Shield" to stream games from PC, will be powered by Tegra 4 processor; company touts Nvidia Grid cloud-gaming platform.
Graphics card maker Nvidia got the ball rolling at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show by revealing a new portable gaming console/controller hybrid called "Project Shield."
The Android-based system runs games from Android's Google Play store and also allows users to stream games installed on their home PC for play on the Shield's screen. Games demonstrated during Nvidia's press conference included Hawken and the PC versions of Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Assassin's Creed III.
Project Shield is based on the company's recently announced Tegra 4 processor. It will have lithium batteries that last for 38 hours. In addition to an HDMI port, the system has a micro-SD slot, a micro-USB slot, and a headphone jack.
Attached to the controller itself is a five-inch, 1280x720-pixel HD multitouch screen that is based on a clamshell design. The system will also be able to output HD gameplay and video to a 4K TV screen. There is currently no word on "Project Shield's" price and release date.
Nvidia also pushed Nvidia Grid, a GPU that is specifically made for cloud computing and cloud gaming all across various PCs and smartphones, which was announced back in May of 2012. The card can push out about 240 Nvidia GPUs' worth of power, which is equivalent to about 700 Xbox 360s, according to Nvidia officials at the press conference. Currently, Nvidia's partners in conjunction with the card are Agawi, Cyber Cloud, Cloudunion, G-cluster, Ubitus and Playcast.
By
Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor
Born and raised from a jungle-laden village in Sarawak, Malaysia, Jonathan Toyad has been playing games since the early 90s. He favors fighting games, RPGs, and rhythm titles above every other genre, and occasionally spaces out like Pavlov's dog to video game music on his iPod.
426 comments
So they've made a chunky, yet portable Ouya. Not convinced these Android systems will be anything special. Sadly no worth while games comes to mind where the tech isn't better elsewhere besides basic touchscreen stuff. Seems like a waste of money to me.
This one is good, but, not even good to be called 'portable' i preferred touch tabs than bringing something with a huge controller.. it wont fit on my bag pack xD. But, let's not judge this one, let's just watch if it will fail or not.
Nvidia has a highly paid and qualified market analysis and engineering teams. I'm sure they can handle something like this without being "fail."
6 Like Those saying Nvidia is going to fail are ridiculous.
Don't you know they're powering the next xbox and PS consoles? WTF is wrong with you people?
@IllegallyAwesum @alrepairs You're mistaken. ATI/AMD power the 360, nVidia powers the PS3
Nice this greedy company will fail , great news :D ... ni ine going to buy this crap if u can play everything on mobile phone, even nvidia locked games, nvidia graphic cards not better then any other around, they just using locks for games, i never going support thes liars!
Android games are ok to pass a few minutes in a waiting room somewhere, but they definitely aren't worth buying a separate console just to play. If there is no specific content for this console (better than the stuff that's available at Play Store) this is a total waste of money.
@claizik" and also allows users to stream games installed on their home PC" Second paragraph.
1 Like A controller with a built in screen and streaming game video - seems like the Nintendo cloning is starting early this year. Maybe it's a glimpse into what other companies' controllers will look like (@ Sony and Microsoft). But of course none of you here will believe it until you see it. So let's just wait until E3.
It looks interesting, not sure how well it will work however. I'd need to know more details and what it's truly capable of.
e.g. -----
will I be able to play any of my PC games on this portable device?,
what's the range that I can be from my PC while playing?,
how much grunt can this thing take?,
do I need to keep my PC on while playing (I imagine so)?
1 Like whats up with all this android cell phone noise? This junk is a waste of time. Everyone knows the next xbox is going to crush all of these upcoming gadgets!!
But will it run a homebrew NES emulator? Because that's all I'm really interested in playing on the fly. Seriously, I'm thinking we might be past the initial hype of portable/cloud computing's promise of never a dull moment/augmented productivity by having all your content on you and accessible all the time. Not that I'm predicting cloud data itself will go away, and I'd be the first to say it's damn handy for syncing projects, but I do think people are realizing that if you really want to do something, whatever it is, you'll need to MAKE the time in your schedule. I have a job myself and it takes up a good chunk of my day. So when I do get around to listening to music, playing video games or reading (yes, some people still do) I want to be able to do it in a comfortable, distraction-free environment for a sustained period of time. I feel a LOT better for it, and can't help but suspect some resurgence of the idea of 'quality time' to be the real future, not more gadgets promising a quick fix of fun on the go.
nah i think i learned my lesson with ONLIVE. i wont bother with it ill just stick with my laptop and game consoles.
Just part of the technological age if you ask me. Nothing to get up or down about until you see it for yourself. I won't be getting one because I can't keep up with all the games I want to play with what I have.
1 Like This is a possible glimpse of our future as technology progresses. As mobile devices become more and more a part of our daily lives, it's not too hard to imagine all games being made on some sort of streamed format one day.
Feels good to see a new piece appear on the board. Things will start to get interesting if it proves to be a worthy competitor.
1 Like I'll surely look after it.. and yea.. after that I will buy it.. When ATI gonna come with something like that.. :P
2 Like Hoping for the best but... Not sure about this. In this world of smartphones and tablets, do we really need mobile gaming devices? Even Nintendo and Sony are starting to ask themselves this question. This seems like trying to get into the telegraph business after everyone has a telephone.
@djwood84 Well unless you like smudging up your screen all day, then no, smartphones just like everything else, is one of many options in which to play a game on. Some people actually want to you know, use an actual controller instead of touching a damn screen all day.
@djwood84 With that said though I can see where your coming from. Specially knowing how high they will price it too, it's pretty pointless aside from the controller. There's literally no unique games they can offer on this that I couldn't play anywhere else, or would justify the price tag in any way shape or form.
The guy speaking from the nvidia conference videos is really starting to creep me out...
to quote Rodney Mckay "using power, using power, using power, using power".
Nuclear AA's anybody?
I'd just like to say thankyou for having this written out, and not forcing us to watch the video.
1 Like I honestly don't know what to think of this, but I definitely want to see more about it.
this is definally not the futurei get that mobile gaming and taking games on the go is but a contorller with a screen attached is not it. if anyhting tablet gaming is going to get stronger and this is just not it
Screw the future of gaming! I want the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of video gaming when the game can read our mind. THAT would be cool.
1 Like Honestly, not a big fan of handhelds. Now that you have smartphones and tablets, there just doesnt seem to be that big of a need for them. If I want more complex gaming, I have my home console. If I need something for the fly, smartphone.
Looks like a pretty cool handheld. Made by NVIDIA, streams PC games, Tegra 4, runs on Android...all pretty cool features. I'll keep my eye on it and see how things turn out. But until then, my 3DS and Vita will continue to entertain my thumbs.
sounds good on paper, but there is probably some flaws that we are overlooking in all this it's a bit too good to be true...i.e. if it's a streaming device...it's not really portable cuz you need wifi or maybe a dataplan or something...so you could potentially be paying monthly to play games you already have on your computer. it's a cool concept though cuz the technology will be able to handle next-gen games right?
@wizardboyus It will steam both PC games locally over WiFi, but it supports Android apps such as Onlive for on-the-go streaming, if that's what you want, and it will also play anything stored on the device, obviously, such as NFS Most Wanted or Shadowgun.
@wizardboyus No, it is still portable because it'll also be able to play Android games that are downloaded to the device. You wouldn't need the power of Tegra 4 to just stream games from somewhere else.
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