Project Shield: A Potential Game-Changer

John Bedford (Modojo): Nvidia's announcement yesterday that it would be releasing a new portable handheld, code-named Project Shield, immediately called to mind some of handheld gaming's less spectacular moments in history. There's the Gizmondo, with its lurid development history and costs that brought down the company. The Panasonic Jungle, designed to woo MMO players just as that bubble began to shrink, was quietly discontinued. Both of these projects, and others, serve as a grim warning for anyone attempting to enter this market.

[Apex13]

Not to be rude but it aint changing anything looking like that. Have they seen mobile devices and PSV/3DS that thing is a beast. Looks like the original xbox shrunk for a hand held.

[tubers]

At least those still aren't the final hardware.

I would just like to point out that they're also targeting those people who lug around controllers for their tablets like the Nexus 7.

This could be a decent enough alternative than that.

[millzy102]

well i love dedicated handheld devices, ive owned all the gameboys and ds's, psp and psvita, sega gamegear and neogeo pocket and pocket colour (got gameboy color, ds, 3ds and vita at launch) and for the first time in my life im not intrested. it looks a mess and a dedicated android gaming platform is a big turn off for me, i hate android gaming its the devil. not interested in pc streeming capabilities as i don't play pc much. velve's piston has a better chance at getting my money ( after ps4 of couse) than this.

[tubers]

Fair enough. But there's still a chance for an audience regarding this device.

First off I'd like to point out pricing. This has no tag yet and that's one of the most important thing to note, if not already.

-5" 720p multi touch display (294 ppi)
-Tegra 4 (~5-6x faster than Tegra 3)
-Pure Android (no bloatware, timely updates)
-4K output
-Industry Standards: USB, miniHDMI, microSD
-Stand alone Android Device
-Decent media consumption device (good browser, html 5 video support, etc.)
-5-8 hours gaming/ 24 hours video (battery)

-Streams PC games.

... If it's anywhere near $ 299.99, it's an amazing value and alternative that can stand along (or against) the Apple's iPod Touch/iPad and Android Tablets (Nexus 7, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, etc.)

Worst case scenario is you buy a decent media consumption device (It's an independent Android device) that can sit on a desk or your washboard abs ;)