Project Shield

[Scizor]

Have just seen thsi on BBC news:

Nvidia has announced plans to produce its own hand-held video-games console.

Project Shield is Android-based and marries a 5in (12.7cm) touch-screen with joysticks, buttons and other controls, in a clam-shell design.

It is also designed to link to PCs offering access to more powerful games such as those on the Steam library.

The announcement was a surprise, as the US company has previously focused on selling chips and graphics cards to other manufacturers.

Nvidia's announcement came at the first major press conference of this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The company's chief executive, Jen-Hsun Huang, did not reveal a release date or price for the device, but he did show off a working prototype and outline its specifications.
Nvidia chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang Nvidia's chief executive said the console had taken five years to develop

The console is bigger than an Xbox controller but smaller than the Wii U's game-pad.

Its screen resolution is 720p, but the machine is capable of playing out games and video in the 4k standard - which offers eight times the detail - on compatible TVs via an HDMI cable.

At its heart is the firm's new quad-core Tegra 4 chip - which Mr Huang described as the fastest mobile processor on the market.

As well as keys representing the standard Android commands, the console also sports a "shield" button that takes users to a curated games store featuring titles selected from the Google Play marketplace. However, it can also be used to run other types of apps - Mr Huang gave music players and Facebook as two examples.

Using wi-fi it can also be paired with a computer containing one of Nvidia's GeForce video cards to run PC games. In this case the desktop computer's processors power the software, offering higher quality graphics than could be rendered by the mobile processor.

Mr Huang boasted that "latency was so short it was as if you are connected to the PC" - playing down potential concerns that this kind of set-up might involve a delay between a user pressing a button on the console and the connected PC registering the command.

A demonstration involving titles from Valve's Steam PC platform appeared to bear this out.

However, to avoid such latency issues, users will only be able to connect the console to a PC on the same home network - although Mr Huang said it was an ambition to allow them to go "beyond the house" with future devices.

It looks pretty snazzy:
http://drh.img.digitalriver.com/DRHM...shield_v2b.png
More info can be found here: http://shield.nvidia.com/

[Cairthenn]

Interesting for sure, but when I'm playing a handheld system, one of my biggest concerns is that it isn't overly bulky. I may be alone in this, but I'd really rather not be holding an Xbox in my hand to play a game.

[Tajin]

Other than playing from the bathroom; I dont see how anybody would like to play pc games on a screen that small.
Add waterproof and you'd expand the market tho.

[The Stig]

It is also designed to link to PCs offering access to more powerful games such as those on the Steam library.

Potential portable FFXI on the go? Sign me up!

[xerodok]

I'd rather just play games on a netbook/tablet in the bathroom. Where the fuck are you going to play that thing?

[chiyio]

Potential portable FFXI on the go? Sign me up!

if by portable you mean connected to the same network.

[The Stig]

Hmm, I'm not sure if I understand what you mean.

From how I understood it, it has potential to play games on Steam (up to a point) -- this means some/selected PC games?

[chiyio]

You have to be connected to your PC, on the same local network for pc games to work. So, portable; as long as you are in your house and close enough to your wi-fi router.

It uses the nvidia card in your pc to render PC games, and just streams them to the device through your wireless router.

Think of it like you can stream some ps3 games to your vita.

[The Stig]

Ah thanks! I misunderstood then. I thought it was an actual "mini PC" (running on some Android related hardware using a mobile CPU, whatever the name is, and Nvidia's mobile GPU, tegra)

[Krandor]

Nvidia is going with Apple style marketing on that one, advertising pre-existing technology as new features.

Splashtop THD (which admittedly requires a Tegra processor to play games and an Nvidia GPU on the PC in question) is a remote desktop client for Android that lets you play thru your Tablet or smartphone. More then likely it *is* Splashtop that they're talking about in the features.