This time it’s not a tablet but it’s a black box for under your TV.
Nvidia has been experimenting with streaming to devices for a while, most recently with their Nvidia Shield tablet, but that appears to have been the first stage in their testing. Today they’ve revealed what they are simply calling “Shield”, a black box of fun that will sit under a TV.
Nvidia wants gamers to stream games to their TV via the new Shield which also has its own controller, much like the Shield tablet. The device is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra X1 with Google’s Android the OS of choice, again like the tablet.
Assuming you have a decent Nvidia card in your PC, the content can be streamed to the Shield at 1080p which also supports decoded 4K video at 60Hz as well as Nvidia’s Grid subscription based streaming service. The Shield also has voice control if that’s important to you.
Nvidia has been encouraging developers to port games onto Android recently and games that were demoed today at GDC included Croteam’s The Talos Principle, Doom 3: BFG Edition, Crysis 3 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. According to Peter who watched the demo, the Borderlands footage looked “rough”.
The plan is to bring fifty Android Shield titles to the Shield which will be available in Google’s Play game store with its own special Shield section.
How well this will sell depends on whether PC gamers feel they need a dedicated box to stream to their TV but there’s a definite push into the living room this year what with Steam Machines expected to release this November.
The new Nvidia Shield will set you back $199 USD and a May release is planned.
