Here comes a new challenger.
Gamers on the move aren’t short of choice these days. With smartphone and iPod games selling like hot cakes, and dedicated consoles such as the Playstation Vita and Nintendo 3DS on shop shelves, casual gamers have it good right now.
But an announcement made at the Consumer Electronics Show is set to mix things up and potentially bring hardcore gamers into the mainstream.
Chip manufacturer NVIDIA has unveiled Project Shield, a portable gaming console that will certainly up the ante for entertainment on the go.
But… is it simply a glorified smartphone built for gamers, or is it a serious challenger to the touch orientated games market?
Let’s take a closer look at the specs:
- 5 inch 720P multi-touch display (1,280 x 720 screen at 294 ppi)
- NVIDIA Tegra 4 chip (Custom 72-core NVIDIA GeForce GPU/Quad-core A15 CPU)
- Controller housing dedicated Android and gaming face/shoulder buttons
- Dual analog sticks and D-Pad
- Stock Android Jelly Bean 4.2.1 operating system
- Integrated custom bass reflex speakers
- 2GB ram & 32GB on board storage
- Wi-Fi 802.11n 2×2 MIMO
- Connectivity: HDMI Out, Micro SD slot, USB and 3.5mm headphone jack
The unique selling point of the device is that it enables PC gaming via wi-fi on the Steam gaming network, and indeed that’s where things get interesting for the better and for the worse.
PC gaming on the go sounds great at first glance. The opportunity to play Skyrim and Borderlands 2 on a handheld device is testament to that. Here’s the kicker, your PC has to be GeForce GTX powered in order to enable you to stream games wirelessly to the Shield. Click here to see if your PC meets the Shield requirements.
Now that caveat potentially alienates a fair amount of PC gamers who aren’t running that configuration on the rig of their choice, however one can argue that a serious gaming PC should exceed those specs at a canter. So you see the problem here isn’t necessarily that the device under performs feature wise, but that the key feature in this case requires additional technology which you may or may not want to shell out for. Bearing that in mind, it’s also worth considering whether your current PC setup uses a controller like the Shield’s or indeed if you use a mouse and keyboard. Hence if you use the latter, is a touch device with an Xbox like controller really going to be your (pardon the pun) weapon of choice?
For most of us then the Shield is a more than capable Android gaming unit, akin to the Sony Xperia Play or Archos Gamepad. The simple question you have to ask yourself is are there really enough high quality games on Google Play to warrant a full blown gamepad, or if you would you prefer whiling away your free time on touch based games.
So there we have it. Project Shield is a sumptuous piece of kit with a top spec, but specs make not a portable gaming console (as the PS Vita is finding out all too well). Ultimately the quality of the software optimised for the Shield and the developer support within Google Play will determine whether this new market entrant is greeted with open arms by the wider public, or accepted merely by niche PC gamers and Android entertainment consumers.
Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks…
