At the GDC in San Francisco, CA, Nvidia revealed its new Android TV console. The company already has the Shield handheld console and a Shield tablet device, and now this Android TV set-top box will be the third and newest addition to the Nvidia Shield family of devices.
The set-top box has a retail selling price of $199.00, and it comes with its own controller. It runs the recently-launched Google Android TV platform. It’s powered by Nvidia’s own processor, the Tegra X1, which features a 256-core Maxwell architecture GPU and a 64-bit CPU.
The company says there are more than 50 Android titles that will be optimized for its new Shield device, and that some of the top game publishers and developers in the world have embraced Shield and the GRID service. Nvidia also revealed a 1080p game-streaming service, a service that is enabled by the Grid server GPU platform.
The price of the new Nvidia Shield set-top box is more expensive than the Amazon Fire TV at $99, the Roku devices at $50-$100, and the Apple TV at $99. However, the gaming capabilities of the Shield device are significantly superior.
Nvidia’s initially launched Shield back in July of 2013 and last quarter, Shield was one of the first devices to receive the Google Android 5.0 Lollipop OS upgrade.
The company’s goal is to focus on continued development of the Android gaming market. Currently, the Android OS platform is the largest in the world and Nvidia believes it will eventually become one of the biggest gaming platforms in the world as well. The company plans on leveraging the 15 to 20 years of expertise and capability it has developed in the PC industry for the Android gaming market.
