Nvidia or nVidia (is there really any other proper way to spell it?) has been a major player in the gaming industry for years, their GeForce graphics cards are the nemesis to ATi’s Radeon, so they know a thing or two about technology.
Who would have thought nVidia would have unveiled a new mobile gaming system called Project Shield? Maybe that’s not the surprise, what’s different about this, is it’s an all-in-one gaming system unlike anything currently on the market.
The Tegra is a force to be reckoned with, if your mobile device has a Tegra installed, you know it has some fast, quality processing power which is why Project Shield contains a Tegra 4 Quad-core A15 processor to handle the custom 72-core GeForce GPU. That’s right, 72-core.
The controller is part of the unit and has similar features to a PlayStation 3 contoller, but with A, B, X and Y buttons as they’re not copyrightable like Sony’s Square, Triangle, Circle and X. Dual analogue sticks and a D-pad appear requirements for movement and menu selection on what nVidia are calling a full-size console-grade controller, which basically means as big as the PS3 and Xbox 360 controllers.
The screen may only be five inches, but boasts a 720p retinal resolution which is also multi-touch, meaning you can still play your old games like Draw Something, but since it runs on Android Jelly Bean, has super fast Wi-Fi capabilities and a HDMI port, you could install the Netflix app and stream movies through it.
Speaking of apps and especially gaming, will it be possible to play OnLive games? Will the controller enable you play games via the OnLive app, if you’re connected to good Wi-Fi source that allows it, there’s no reason you can’t. The question is, will the controller allow it? If you’re allowed use the controller to play games on OnLive, that opens up a whole new area of gaming.
Of course, due to using Android Jelly Bean means access to all the usual applications with the benefit of obtaining official ones from Google Play, something that a lot of tablets lack and usually require you to visit GetJar instead. There’s also TegraZone which is kind of like Samsung Apps, but Jen-Hsun Huang also announced a cloud delivery system that would provide games wherever you are.
If that’s not enough, if you have a PC with a GeForce GTX 650 or better installed, you can stream games from the PC, giving access to your Steam collection. All this sounds too good to be true and if the truth is known, it’s going to be costly. It’s promising to be the ideal mobile gaming system and with those specifications, it’s not going to come cheap.
