Yet another handeld console : Nvidia Shield

Article on kotaku.com

Some mitigate reactions on twitter, but I must admit I'm curious about this.

Is this some iteration of the Steam box ?

Said to run a "pure android" so in theory we should be able to export from C2 and wrap to this new support too.

And at worst, we should be able to stream from the PC, so desktop HTML5 games should be able to be executed and played on the device.

It's not a handheld like a 3DS imo, it's a new "hybrid" form of device.

The next generation of consoles/devices looks promising.

Now let's guess what consoles will survive. I'm expecting Sony and Microsoft to do some kind of cloud/service subscribing consoles which maybe won't have as much success as they did on the current gen.

Indies, let's spread the word about possible devices to players so they know they will have more choice than Wii U, Xbox720 and PS4 (or whatever their names are).

Now...

OUYA vs Game Stick vs Project Shield

Looks like we will see an interesting race for market share. If i wear to predict the outcome, i say Nvidia > Game Stick > Ouya.

I'll be honest though, that handheld visually looks like a console-to-handheld homebrew project. Nvidia has bad design taste lol

Well imo, Shield is a far different device than Ouya/Gamestick to make any comparisons.

It's supposed to be a handheld console which can also stream from your PC.

In that aspect it kind of draws near what the Wii U gamepad is/does, whereas Ouya and Gamestick require a monitor to be plugged in and follow more a "living-room console" architecture.

Ouya and GS are likely to be portable, but will still require a screen in which to plug in, whereas the Shield is supposed to suffice itself and also has a monitor output.

I'm excited at the idea of streaming my HTML5 game executed on the PC on a portable console (not a tablet or phone).

As for the design, I find it kind of old school and it really makes me think about a portable xBox/gaming machine.

Anyway, it's early and it will depend on the price to see what market share the device is supposed to fill.

I still feel more excited about the Shield than the Ouya/GS.

Again, after OUYA, PlayJoy, Arcos Gamepad, and Gamestick.

All above is Android based device. :)

Well yeah, there's probably going to be hundreds of devices that try to corner this market, heck I saw a vid with Raspberry pi running the FireFox os weeks ago, and that's 35 bucks.

The thing is, you would think that price would be a major decider in this, but I wonder, as apparently people will buy anything from Apple.

Heck the Apple Tv thing will allow you to stream from an Ipad to a tv. Given they already have a huge market there, they might possibly have already won the tv wars before the first shot, or even first soldier was made.

Lets see now:

-Ouya

-Green Throttle

-Nvidia Shield

-Playjoy

-Arcos Gamepad

-GameStick

-Combiform (which has now had a canceled Kickstarter campaign, and now an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign).

I can't think of any more, but we're starting to get a flood of indie hardware. I like it in a sense, but it does seem like a deck of cards.

I think this is great. With so many companies jumping on the bandwagon (and a big name like nvidia), I think it's making it more and more likely that the idea as a whole will work - android being used as an open gaming platform, open to develop hardware and software for. Sort of like how PCs have done it, like having the 3ds being open for anyone to make a version of.

The more companies that try to do this, the more customers are reached, and the more viable the platform becomes and the more people start to think of android as a gaming platform. The main thing is I hope it will be easy to get a game working with all the various hardware out there. There really needs to be something to make doing so easy for us devs.

I'm a bit concerned about the quality of hardware - not from the current contenders specifically, but historically there are generally companies that make subpar hardware to undercut their competitors, like for example when Apple decided to let other companies make Apple hardware, there were a lot of clones that had issues, devaluing the brand and it almost tanked Apple. Similarly, the amount of garbage software for the Atari almost ruined the industry before Nintendo saved it specifically by having a closed platform so they could ensure some level of quality. With the Internet as prevalent as it is now though, it's a lot easier to research something before buying.

All these companies joining in also means that it's likely that we'll get a platform that is being updated whenever new technology is available rather than once every 5 years or so. Honestly, I think a regularly updated video game platform might be the thing the industry needs. It works great for iOS and pc - why not consoles?

I like that there is a lot of competition in this field right now. Personally I think the NVidia one is ugly as hell, but it should have decent power to back it up.

I'm excited to see all these new devices hitting the market.

I'm a bit concerned about the quality of hardware - not from the current contenders specifically, but historically there are generally companies that make subpar hardware to undercut their competitors, like for example when Apple decided to let other companies make Apple hardware, there were a lot of clones that had issues, devaluing the brand and it almost tanked Apple. Similarly, the amount of garbage software for the Atari almost ruined the industry before Nintendo saved it specifically by having a closed platform so they could ensure some level of quality. With the Internet as prevalent as it is now though, it's a lot easier to research something before buying.

I guess it's sort of a push for these "indie" consoles, since they're all pretty under-powered in relation to what we get from the Big 3 (Nintendo, MS, Sony).

All these companies joining in also means that it's likely that we'll get a platform that is being updated whenever new technology is available rather than once every 5 years or so. Honestly, I think a regularly updated video game platform might be the thing the industry needs. It works great for iOS and pc - why not consoles?

The general consensus has always been that PC gamers are more sophisticated than console gamers, and therefore understand that gaming technology is a perpetual investment. Console gamers on the other hand tend to expect that what they buy today lasts for the next 5-7 years without the need to pay for upgrades.

Some people refute the latter claim by pointing out system upgrades like the Sega CD and Sega 32X, but I always remind them that both of those systems (especially the 32X) where commercially unsuccessful overall, and it showed us that consumers are not keen on buying full-scale hardware add-ons. However, if the price of add-ons can be kept close to the current cost of a AAA retail game somehow, this issue may then be moot. It's just that at the time that add-ons like CD systems and such were common (16-Bit era) they were always as or more expensive than the main console.

It's too ugly for to me consider buying it. Maybe over a decade ago, it would have been cool.

If it run HTML5, we can play it.

I don't see any future for ouya, for Game Stick I do see lot of potential. This shield looks like something that will actually become something.