
Nvidia Shield - twodayslate
http://store.nvidia.com/buyshield?cid=sp-gfnewsletter
======
swang
1\. This cost Nvidia $10 million to develop and essentially promote the Tegra
4. If it convinces other companies to back Tegra 4, it was probably worth the
investment. If it completely flops, it's not exactly something that will sink
the company.

2\. From following the thread on NeoGAF about the Shield, it seems like this
is targeted more towards hardcore gamers who want to stream PC games so they
don't have to be at a desktop all the time and to also have a relatively
powerful emulation machine.

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tsunamifury
This is an a very strange launch and I'm not entirely sure who the target
market is.

Serious gamers -- I doubt they'd be happy with Android games. Kids -- no
killer marketing/mascots. Casual gamers -- likely wouldn't care enough, their
phone is good enough.

However, if this gained an install base, I'd assume it would drive the nearly
non-existance premium purchase market on android games up.

~~~
dnissley
The real killer (or at least differentiating) feature is that you can stream
PC games from your desktop to the shield. Apparently it works pretty well[1].

[1] - [http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/31/4573596/nvidia-shield-
revi...](http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/31/4573596/nvidia-shield-review)

~~~
est
Is that Tegra 4 only that requires some kind of special hardware? Or any
android device with some kind of software could do this?

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joenathan
Onlive does this on pretty much any device, here is their Android app
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onlive.cli...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onlive.client&hl=en)

~~~
CrazedGeek
Well, except that it only plays games on the OnLive service, not any PC game
with controller support.

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joenathan
The point is nothing magical is happening in the Tegra 4 to enable this use
case, this feature can be replicated with pretty much any device.

~~~
mtgx
Neither of you understands what's going on here. It has nothing to do with
Tegra 4 in regards to streaming. It has to do with Nvidia's PC GPU's and their
streaming software. That's why it wouldn't work with AMD's chips - because you
need Nvidia's software that's only available for Nvidia's GPU's.

~~~
joenathan
I don't buy it, just look into Nvidia and Physx, AMD chips are just as capable
is not more so.

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angersock
I'm I the only one who read the headline and thought it was some awesome addon
for Arduinos?

~~~
jnbiche
No, I was so disappointed. I had images of some sort of fantastic mini-GPU
shield.

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bane
I'm going to buy one as a portable emulation machine...when it doesn't sell
well and drops in price a hundred dollars.

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dapole
I got one, and so far love it. The pc streaming feature is fantastic not to
mention the ability to have all my favorite old console games emulated on the
go.

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jwise0
(disclosure: I work at NVIDIA, but not directly on Shield.)

One of the things that I find most exciting about Shield is that it's a
platform designed for innovation. Build blobs, a manifest.xml, and recovery
images were released on day 3 (they would have been released on day 1, but for
an Akamaization mistake). [1]

I'm not sure whether it will take off in the hands of developers, but the step
of reaching out as soon as we could makes me proud. I certainly hope that
people will come and develop on our platform, but more than anything else, I
hope that this will make it closer to "the norm" for SoC vendors to provide
support packages for _their_ platforms.

[1]
[https://developer.nvidia.com/develop4shield#OSR](https://developer.nvidia.com/develop4shield#OSR)
... or if you prefer the PR-speak,
[http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2013/08/07/hack-your-
shield/](http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2013/08/07/hack-your-shield/)

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panderon
The reveal of the shield was months ago, and since then it's still unknown by
many within the industry (including pro gamers) how this will end up.

While it definitely targets the more serious gamers with capabilities like PC
streaming, etc., this is really Nvidia dipping its toes in the retail arena,
starting with mobile.

A leader in portable _real_ gaming has yet to emerge, and until recently it's
been a showdown between PS Vita & the 3DS line. Mobile game development has
really started to mature and and so has mobile hardware (tablets/phones/etc.)
and seriously cut into the value proposition for portable game systems.

Unfortunately, the control experience hasn't kept up and this is a serious gap
that _may_ present opportunity.

Nvidia already has a platform (Tegra) that performs extremely well with
respect to gaming, and by selecting Android has access to a potential existing
library of games that could be easily ported over to seed their ecosystem.

As someone else mentioned, the dynamics of gamers are extremely diverse.
Serious FPS players may only play PC, but also 'moonlight' as casual sports
gamers on console. And all gamers have the same basic needs when it comes to
portable gaming that at present is only available from Nintendo & Sony.

Bottom line, many gamers suspect that Nvidia may attempt to produce their own
hardware console in the future, and this could be the precursor. It is a bit
'something for everybody' so it's hard to say whether that will be compelling
enough for anybody. Most of the gamers I interact with say that they'll wait
for v2.

~~~
chaostheory
> A leader in portable real gaming has yet to emerge

Real gaming? The games on Android and iOS are real video games. As far as I'm
concerned those two platforms are the leaders in mobile gaming.

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kapitalx
Nvidia demoed this at their keynote in CES this year, it looks very promising.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOHNmzz1gYo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOHNmzz1gYo)

Edit: This video is a much better closeup:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf_3huHlfZM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf_3huHlfZM)

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kqr2
It would be cool if it was a portable Steam console.

~~~
ahomescu1
You can stream Steam games from the PC on the Shield (AFAIK).

~~~
samweinberg
What, through VNC? That doesn't seem like it would be a very enjoyable
experience.

~~~
nathos
Shield's PC game streaming works by using the hardware H.264 encoder in Nvidia
GTX 650 (or higher) graphics cards. They recommend a reasonably fast PC and a
fast wireless network.

~~~
reedlaw
Does it support an ATI card in the PC?

~~~
swang
No, you need an Nvidia card above a GTX 650 because those cards have the built
in H.264 encoder necessary to stream the games.

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joshmn
The marketing here is awfully deceptive unless you know what you're reading
(you know, parents and stuff):

"Custom 72-core NVIDIA GeForce® GPU Quad-core ARM® A15 CPU."

Rarely do you hear cores related to the GPU and not the CPU. "72 core? This
thing must be amazing! [click]" Furthermore, how often do you see the GPU
mentioned prior to the CPU? Not very, but I guess that's what happens when
you're NVIDIA.

Edit: "5-inch 720p retinal quality multi-touch display for high-fidelity
visuals."

Retinal display. Made me giggle. Just because they're pitching it with the
latest buzzword. Yeah, it's 294ppi at 12", blah blah blah, but still. Retinal
display?

~~~
comex
Retina Display is actually a trademark. Never seen anyone hint at it so
explicitly - not that that's necessarily a bad thing.

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mtgx
Maybe next year they can increase the screen to 6" or even 7" by cutting down
on those big bezels, and maybe making the top cover a bit bigger.

The resolution can stay the same, since for that kind of screen it should be
enough for now, and as a gamer you'd rather take advantage of the extra
graphics. I'm also more interested in the mobile Kepler GPU that they should
have next year. If they could drop the price down to at least $250 that would
be better ($200 would be the sweet spot in a world where people are barely
interested in consoles anymore, but I know that won't be possible even next
year).

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kayoone
My initial thoughts were "meh" but after getting into some details and reading
some reviews this device seems to be really well made and has alot going for
it. The PC Streaming feature looks awesome and if there is one thing that
frustrates me about serious mobile gaming, its controls which is a non issue
here. Instead of a PS Vita or some other gaming handheld, i would definately
get this!

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swang
[http://store.nvidia.com/buyshield?cid=sp-
gfnewsletter](http://store.nvidia.com/buyshield?cid=sp-gfnewsletter)

Is that an affiliate link?

~~~
twodayslate
No. The link is from the official newsletter.

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SmokyBorbon
The future of mobile gaming is IOS. Ports of KOTOR and XCOM have shown its
potential.

