Nvidia's Shield coming June 27 with price drop to $299

Nvidia's Android-powered handheld Shield will be hitting the market on June 27, but the company has decided to drop the price $50 to $299 before its release, based on user feedback.

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Nvidia's Android-powered handheld Shield will be hitting the market on June 27, but the company has decided to drop the price to $299 before its release, based on user feedback. This represents a discount of $50. However, even the new price is still higher than a 3DS or Vita.

"We've heard from thousands of gamers that if the price was $299, we'd have a home run," project manager Jason Paul said today in a blog post on the official site. "So we're changing the price of Shield to $299." He said that anyone who pre-ordered the unit would only pay the discounted price.

One of the prime selling points for the Shield is that it will stream PC games from your computer on its 5-inch, 720p flip-up screen. The unit, which has a Xbox 360-style controller, runs on an Nvidia's Tegra 4 mobile CPU/GPU combo with 2GB of RAM and the Jelly Bean version of Google's Android OS. It was announced in January at CES.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 20, 2013 8:15 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Nvidia's Shield coming June 27 with price drop to $299.

    Nvidia's Android-powered handheld Shield will be hitting the market on June 27, but the company has decided to drop the price $50 to $299 before its release, based on user feedback.

    • reply
      June 20, 2013 8:17 AM

      If this ships more than 1 million units I'll be incredibly surprised.

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      June 20, 2013 8:21 AM

      I still don't get why anyone would want to buy this.

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        June 20, 2013 8:27 AM

        [deleted]

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        June 20, 2013 8:28 AM

        This is the one that lets you stream your PC to the device, right? Portable Fallout 3/New Vegas/Skyrim.

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          June 20, 2013 9:02 AM

          On a tiny screen? Eh...

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            June 20, 2013 9:08 AM

            5 inches is plenty for a device you hold right in front of your face, you'd be surprised. Especially when you have a dedicated controller and don't have to cover half the screen with your fat fingers.

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              June 20, 2013 9:56 AM

              my 23" pc monitor is at pretty much the same distance

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          June 20, 2013 9:26 AM

          only if you have a new geforce so I'm out right there

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          June 20, 2013 9:27 AM

          Over wifi, yeah, so not that portable.

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        June 20, 2013 9:31 AM

        Played with one at E3, it definitely does what it advertises. I liked it's capabilities but the requirements of a good GPU limits it's market and hides the upfront cost.

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      June 20, 2013 8:22 AM

      If the d-pad feels good I might consider it. It'd be a fun portable emulation machine.

      Also if the new portable Deus Ex supports controls like that.

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      June 20, 2013 8:47 AM

      the Nokia N-Gage was a better gaming platform than this thing.

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      June 20, 2013 8:50 AM

      I might consider this at around $100, just to try it out not because I actually look at it and think "Gee, that's something I really want!"

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      June 20, 2013 8:54 AM

      I'm still surprised it requires active cooling. It's going to be an interesting year for mobile. Intel is finally making a push for atom to be competitive in phones/tablets (imagine an atom based iPhone!). Qualcomm's new chip set is a beast: http://anandtech.com/show/7082/snapdragon-800-msm8974-performance-preview-qualcomm-mobile-development-tablet
      TI is leaving the market. And nvidia is making their own devices now.

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      June 20, 2013 9:16 AM

      This is a pretty interesting product, even for the Shack crowd. The biggest problem here is that there just aren't any games (well, and the price for a portable gaming system) for it. I mean Tegra 4 specific games. It's just too much muscle to play the ocean of low-end to medium visual fidelity titles that I see in Google Play. I mean, most of the games I've been playing have mostly had retro pixelated graphics in-fact; Star Wars pinball being the biggest exception.

      I guess I'm saying they're missing the killer app to go with the system. We've seen how new system launches can languish without that initial title to help sell the system. I'm sure the hardware is going to be great, but it's just sooooo much overkill for the quality that's out there. And, I just don't see the PC streaming as being a big enough selling point. It's not just the graphic card compatibility issue (has to be at least a GTX 650 or higher) but that the game you're streaming has to work with the controller. That tells me that a real pc game that makes use of the keyboard's many keys wouldn't be a good candidate since you're limited to the few buttons on the controller. So, that tells me this is a soft push to get the PC market to accept more console ports. Um, no thanks. This makes Play PC a poor selling point to most Shackers, even if they could stream.

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        June 20, 2013 9:17 AM

        Duh. Featured game list that'll support Play PC:
        Batman: AC
        Boarderlands 2
        Dishonored
        Metro: Last Light
        Resident Evil 6
        Skyrim

        yup, all console ports. My point exactly.

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      June 20, 2013 9:45 AM

      I applaud them for trying this but I don't really see this taking off.

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      June 20, 2013 9:54 AM

      I'm only buying this if every time it turns on, I hear SIERRA HOTEL etc.

      that's for whoever posted the facebook story

    • reply
      June 20, 2013 2:28 PM

      [deleted]

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        June 20, 2013 2:39 PM

        They built the technology around Tegra 4. I'm betting it will get ported to other tegra 4 devices.

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      June 20, 2013 2:36 PM

      LOL worse than a VITA. By 100 times. Imagine the sales.

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        June 20, 2013 2:51 PM

        Might not even register on NPD. There is absolutely zero buzz associated with this launch. It's an answer to a question nobody asked.

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      June 20, 2013 3:55 PM

      The 3DS had to drop from $250 to $170 to start selling. I don't see $350 to $300 helping NVidia sell a handheld.

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      June 20, 2013 5:37 PM

      i would consider one if it had a full hd display

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        June 20, 2013 6:28 PM

        720p is hd.

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        June 20, 2013 6:36 PM

        Why would it matter on such a tiny screen? I've got Android phones in that size and 720p is amazing for graphics. It's only ultra ultra fine text which is a concern. You don't need full HD.

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          June 21, 2013 2:30 AM

          have you tried HTC One of S4 ? the improvement is noticeable compared to 720p

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      June 20, 2013 6:41 PM

      Once people get their hands on it and realize how cheap it feels, eBay is going to be flooded. They are made so horribly. The plastics are total shit.

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      June 20, 2013 6:54 PM

      So let me get this straight.This crappy handheld is only $100 less than what the PS4 costs,which comes out later this year?

      For those that need to actually save up for a PS4,I can't see any way that they will waste their money on this.I know that it's months away,but $300 is $300 and would seem like a total waste once the new consoles come out and it's in the corner collecting dust.

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        June 20, 2013 7:03 PM

        Handhelds are different to home consoles

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      June 20, 2013 8:33 PM

      There was a Cnet article today that made the case why you'd spend this kind of money on Shield. The core of the argument was that you'll basically spend $299 for the system, but only spend $free - $5 for individual games; meaning the total cost of ownership would be much less than a PS4/Xbox and $50-60 per game. That has logic, but aside from some classic FF games most of the games on the mobile platform doesn't quite come close to the same scope as traditional console game on a disc (though there are certainly too many crappy disc based game to make the reverse argument).

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