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Nvidia Shield at CES 2013 - 001

Last week ExtremeTech'southward James Plafke wrote virtually why he believed Nvidia's Shield was poised for failure. Ryan Whitwam humbly disagreed with that decision and wanted to brand his case.

Nvidia's Tegra 4 scrap might accept been leaked a dozen times in the run up to CES 2013, but its Project Shield handheld console was a complete surprise. Powered past the Tegra iv and rocking a 720p display, the Shield is an Android gaming motorcar that seems to be flirting with both success and failure. But when you look at the state of the mobile gaming market 1 thing is clear: Nvidia has all the cards needed to score a large win with the Shield.

The unmarried biggest advantage Shield has is that Nvidia is not stuck developing a content ecosystem for a single device. Sony and Nintendo, for case, have to sell developers on making games for their singular handhelds. Nvidia is taking a dissimilar route by leveraging multiple existing ecosystems rather that starting from scratch.

Project Shield runs total stock Android with Play Store admission, and Android gaming has truly taken off in the terminal yr. There are loads of awesome platformers, adventure games, and 3D shoot-em-ups. Many of these titles include controller support (either Bluetooth or wired), and that means the Shield volition be ideal for playing the likes of GTA: Vice Urban center, Sonic, and Need for Speed. There are hundreds of games like this but waiting to grace the Shield's screen, and Nvidia doesn't accept to lift a finger to brand that happen.

Developers don't demand to be convinced to make these games. Android accounts for roughly 75% of smartphone shipments and Google activates over 1.three million devices every unmarried mean solar day. No one has to worry about whether or not at that place will be game available for the Shield. The calculation is based on Android's success, and that'due south an piece of cake call for plenty of devs.

Nvidia Shield - 002Nvidia is also using its dominance in PC gaming to sweeten the bargain. The Shield will sync up with Steam to stream PC games across your home network so they can be played on the handheld or a TV in another room. And, of class, the visuals in a PC game are still worlds better than what you'll encounter on any handheld console. Nvidia demoed this with a very pricey GTX680 desktop card, but it could exist a killer characteristic if made available to a wider range of Nvidia hardware.

The third prong in Nvidia's content assail is Tegra gaming. In addition to the standard controller-compatible games in Google Play, there are dozens of games with Tegra-optimized graphics. Some are exclusive to Tegra, and some just accept enhanced graphics on Tegra chips. A game like Dead Trigger looks virtually console level on Tegra three, and Tegra 4 is only going to up Nvidia's game.

With Tegra iv, Nvidia promises graphics unlike nosotros've seen before on Android. The brief demo of Expressionless Trigger ii was indeed stunning. The Shield has more raw ability than the Xbox 360 and information technology fits in your (absolutely large) pocket.

Nvidia has been working with developers for years to optimize games for its video cards. That's the aforementioned thing information technology's doing on Android — information technology works with app devs to support the creation of games that are targeted specifically at Tegra. I'm always surprised how effectively Nvidia pushes Tegra Zone games onto Android. Information technology happened with Tegra 2, with Tegra three, and it's going to happen with Tegra iv and Shield — content won't exist a trouble.

The Shield will exist a pure Android device with admission to all the absurd cloud services Google has to offer. Nvidia could have forked Android and designed its own carve up ecosystem for maximum command, simply it chose a more open approach. That, along with multiple gaming options is going to earn Nvidia enough of fans. If the company tin sell Shield for a reasonable toll, it's a clear winner and a good culling to all those mediocre Bluetooth controllers strapped to phones.

Now read: Valve confirms Linux Steam Box for 2013, but tin it really disrupt PC and console gaming?