Nvidia has unveiled the new Nvidia Shield, a 4K capable gaming console built on Android.
The new Shield can natively run games like Crysis 3, and stream 8th gen games like The Witcher 3. Nvidia has signed up their longtime dev partners, with 50 games ready at launch, to add up to 100 in the succeeding months. The games will all run 1080p 60 FPS, no compromises.
The Shield is still a set-top box as well, so it will do the same things competitors like Chromecast does as well, only with the capability to output 4K, 60 FPS.
The Shield’s secret sauce is the Tegra X1 processor, which finally brings their exceedingly powerful, and cheap, mobile processor, to reality.
Overall, the console stands as proof that Android is a platform capable of competing with PCs and dedicated consoles. After so many others have failed to demonstrate it (Ouya, MOJO, etc), it’s the kick in the pants the Android/Linux gaming community needs. With a price point of $ 200, it can scoop up the market Valve’s Steam Machines can enter too.
