At CES 2013, the president of Nvidia debuted their first portable gaming console, currently called Project Shield. He presented it along with a live a demo of the hardware which showed a stunning looking model of Shield running on the Unreal 4 Engine. Inside this bad boy is Nvidia’s new GPU, the Tegra 4. It’s got some impressive muscle.
Nvidia Project Shield Specs (So far)…
- Tegra 4 Custom 72-core NVIDIA GeForce® GPU
- Quad-core A15 CPU
- Full-size console-grade game controller
- 5-inch 720p retinal multi-touch display
- Custom, bass-reflex, tuned port audio system
- 802.11n 2×2 MIMO game-speed Wi-Fi
- Android Jelly Bean operating system from Google
- Micro SD
- HDMI
- USB
Nvidia Project Shield Features…
- Non proprietary version of Android
- PC game streaming over WiFi
- Customizable cover plate
- 5 to 10 gameplay battery life
- 24 hr HD video battery life
- Compatible with Steam
As a portable system, it can play pretty much any Android compatible game from what we can tell. You can also get games directly from Google Play and from Nvidia’s Tegra Game Store. This leaves the door open for a rich home brew & indie game community. Beyond that, you can also use it to remotely play games on your PC as long as you have a GTX 600 series graphics card with Nvidia’s optimization software, GeForce Experience, installed. You can also use Steam to play, communicate and buy games.
You can watch the full Project Shield Announcement at CES 2013 by Jen-Hsun Huang…
The video demonstrates a lot of what Project Shield can do. It shares features with home consoles and portable consoles. Steaming games to the device from your PC, similar to the Wii U. Clam shell design to protect the screen like the DS. High quality controller design akin to Xbox 360/Playstation 3.
Check out this Nvidia Shield gameplay video of Dead Trigger 2… (real time)
Nvidia hasn’t set a release date for Project Shield yet but have estimated Q2 2013. They’ve also stated that the product is still currently in beta testing now. Certain things may change, for example the version of Android it’s running. They also haven’t shot down the possibility of it using 4G connectivity in addition to its current wifi functionality. Hopefully, Nvidia will fix the crappy D-pad on it, because that thing looks as bad as the Xbox 360 pad… Nvidia also hasn’t announced a price yet but have stated that they will not be selling this product at a loss. This pretty much means it’s going to be expensive, more than likely in the tablet price range (we’re guessing $300 to $500). We’ll report more updates as they come.