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Shilpa Lama May 26th, 2015

Should You Be Excited About The Nvidia Shield Console

Come May and we will witness Nvidia’s first foray into the TV console gaming market. The graphics giant, more known for its cutting edge GPUs, has been for the last couple of years trying to branch into a market dominated by the other three big players: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

Nvidia Shield consoleThe Shield “Microconsole” which was recently announced by Nvidia, happens to be the company’s third offering in the Shield lineup (the other two are the Shield tablet and the Shield handheld gaming console.)

(Also Read: Nvidia Claims Consoles Will Die Out By Next Generation)

The console which Nvidia calls the “Android TV console” is to come with a very powerful Tegra K1 processor, a Maxwell-generation GPU and 3 gigs of ram, running a version of Android.

The Shield’s hardware specs are weaker than both the PlayStation 4 and the XBox One, with Nvidia claiming performance figures to be twice that of the previous generation PS3 and the Xbox 360. However, what sets the Shield apart from its competitors is its advertised ability to stream 1080p resolution 60 fps gaming into your TV (where all the computing is done by Nvidia’s server farms via Nvidia’s grid service).

Needless to say, stable, high-speed internet connectivity is a must-have for this feature, with Nvidia recommending 15 Mbps.

Not only that, some of the year’s most anticipated games which include the latest iterations of the Witcher and Metal Gear Solid saga, will be available on launch for the Shield. Although the initial library will be small, this will likely be expanded rapidly in the future and with both AAA and Android games made available. So, if there’s one thing that you can be certain of about the forthcoming Shield console, it’s the obvious fact that  running out of good games is unlikely to be an issue – ever!

Nvidia’s approach certainly throws a new insight into the gaming industry. As today’s state-of-the-art hardware becomes average and then obsolete within a span of not more than 2-3 years, Nvidia’s champion with its cloud computing prowess could save a lot in expensive and regular hardware updates. Also, with its versatility and ability to stream 4k video output, Shield definitely has the potential to entice a lot of PC gamers who are looking to play their games on bigger screens and also want the accessibility of a console.

However, while the Tegra K1 processor is very capable, it will no doubt be surpassed by something more powerful sooner rather than later – especially if we choose to take the pace set in the Smartphone market as an indicator. This implies that Nvidia may be banking more on a strategy of much faster console upgrades, compared to current industry practice of following usually ten year cycles.

Even with its purported versatility, Nvidia’s offering may not get enough time to build its fan base before being eclipsed by the next upgraded model. Consumers may also shy away from the fact that while they will have upgrade their more traditional consoles once every ten years, going with the Shield might entail a more frequent and hence expensive upgrade cycle.

However, with the Shield being priced at $ 199 in the US, it is also cheaper than its competitors. This might assuage some of the upgrade fears. If the Shield can achieve its potential, very soon we might have a device that is not only capable of streaming 4k resolution output; but is also a dedicated gaming console to boot.

So, do you think Nvidia’s Shield has the potential to make it big in the worldwide gaming console market? Feel free to share your thoughts using the comment box below.

Latest TV searches:

nvidia shield console, nvidia shield
Steve Jan 8th, 2013

nVidia Reveal Handheld Game Console Doubling As Android

One of the first items of interest to be revealed at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2013), American ‘visual computing’ experts nVidia have unveiled what they hope will be a unique addition to the console market.

nvidia_project_shieldWhile the end goal will be to make a dent (however small) in a market with the likes of Sony and Microsoft with the mini-console, the company revealed their product to have the innovation of being an ‘Android games console’, running on the Google company’s operating system as a screen attached to a dual-analogue stick games controller.

This display for the console currently known as ‘Project Shield’ is a 5-inch 720p touchscreen that will offer ‘traditional Android games’ and connectivity to standardised Android features such as playing music and viewing video streams from services such as Netflix and Hulu, along with access to the online Android store. In addition, the console will be able to stream PC content to a screen or TV either wirelessly or through an HDMI port.

Technically, Project Shield will be powered by a ‘Tegra 4′ chip (said to be powerful enough to handle 4K UHD quality video and the ‘next-gen graphics engine’ of Unreal Engine 4), while also supporting a 5-10 hour battery life and a ‘microSD slot’ for additional storage.

Several leading figures in the video games industry have voiced their support for the project already, including Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, and Mark Rein, the co-founder of Epic Games, who had this to say about nVidia’s effort: “With Project Shield, nVidia brings an uncompromising, high-performance console experience to mobile devices. Amazing games including Real Boxing and Hawken, which utilize the latest Unreal Engine technology, look fantastic on Project Shield. This is just the beginning, and we’re truly excited to see what more Unreal Engine developers will do with so much horsepower in such a compact gaming device.”

nVidia co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang noted: “Project Shield was created by nVidia engineers who love to game and imagined a new way to play. We imagined a device that would do for games what the iPod and Kindle have done for music and books, letting us play in a cool new way. We hope other gamers love Shield as much as we do.”

While it will probably be more likely to compete with PlayJam than PS3, the Android-led nVidia Project Shield is set for an ‘early summer’ release in North America before launching worldwide by the year end. Set to straddle the line between handheld and home console, will it manage to find a place in the market?

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