SAN FRANCISCO—At a Game Developers Conference presentation tonight, Nvidia revealed Shield, a living room gaming and 4K video streaming-focused extension of its existing portable- and tablet-based Shield game console line. The "streaming device on steroids," as an Nvidia rep referred to it, will be available in "early May" for $199 with an included controller.

The Android TV-based, Tegra X1-powered Shield will run a selection of controller-optimized Android titles natively—Nvidia says a curated selection of 50 such games will be available at launch, but others will also be playable from the Google Play store or even through sideloading. This includes all the games that already run on Nvidia's Shield portable and Shield tablet consoles; games purchased on one of those devices will be playable on the others through the same account. Nvidia also left open the option of games that takes particular advantage of the extra processing in the X1 chip, which doesn't have the kind of power restrictions that often limit chips on mobile devices. Nvidia compared the power of the chip favorably to the Apple TV and the Xbox 360.

To show off that power, Nvidia let Ars try a demo of Doom 3: BFG Edition running at full 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second on the Shield, with some decently advanced lighting effects bouncing down the game's narrow hallways. Nvidia also demonstrated Crysis 3 running on the console and said it's working with Crytek to port the full CryEngine to Android for use on the device. During the announcement event, Gearbox co-founder Randy Pitchford came on stage to announce that Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will be coming to the console as well, alongside ports for the Xbox One and PS4.

Much like other devices in the line, Nvidia is also pushing Shield as a streaming gaming solution. Players will be able to use Nvidia's Grid service to play a selection of Windows PC games running remotely on the company's server farms. That service is currently free for existing users, but Nvidia will start charging for it in June in two tiers: a 720p base subscription and a 1080p premium subscription. Pricing for these subscriptions was not announced.

Nvidia says the low-end plan requires a 5 Mbps connection (15 Mbps recommended) while the premium plan requires 15 Mbps (50 Mbps recommended). Both plans will include unlimited play for a selection of over 50 GRID-compatible games to start. Other titles will be available for purchase in a combo that includes a Steam code and streaming access, with many available for streaming the same day they launch. In addition, users with a GeForce-powered PC in the house can stream their entire Steam library to a Shield on the same network.













Outside of gaming, Nvidia is stressing that the Shield is the only set-top streaming device powerful enough to handle full 4K video at 60 frames per second. Currently, that kind of video is limited primarily to some high-end user-created content on YouTube, but representatives said they hoped that video processing power would make the device somewhat future proof as major studios put out more 4K content at a high frame rate in the future.

The Shield can play videos purchased and downloaded from Google Play, streamed from any number of online services, pushed to the TV through native Chromecast support, or even pulled from a local NAS server using included PLEX software and XBMC integration. An optional, rechargeable handheld remote lets users control volume and playback in a more streamlined form than the standard Shield controller and comes with a built-in microphone for voice-based search queries and headphone jack to listen to audio streamed from the device. Built-in Twitch support will allow players to stream their Shield games to the Internet, and Nvidia says it's working with Logitech on webcam compatibility through the device's USB ports.

The Shield supports up to four controllers connected over Wi-Fi Direct standard for local multiplayer gaming; additional controllers will cost $60 at retail and last up to 40 hours on a single charge. 16 GB of internal storage can be expanded through a microSD card slot. 7.1 surround sound support, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, bluetooth, and an IR receiver for standard remote controls round out the specs list.

Nvidia says the Shield has been five years in the making, but it was really waiting for conditions to be right before it could be a viable product. Those conditions include an open platform like Android TV to allow for easy developer access and shared games across devices, affordable hardware power that could do high-resolution gaming and video streaming, and the GRID streaming infrastructure to run standard PC games over the cloud.

The Shield enters a market that is littered with living-room based microconsoles that have failed to have much of a long-term impact on the gaming market, from Ouya and PlayStation TV to Amazon Fire TV and the MadCatz M.O.J.O. . The Shield brings a much stronger high-end gaming focus and more powerful hardware than most, if not all, of its failed brethren, but also comes saddled with a higher price than many other microconsole solutions. We'll have a fuller evaluation once the hardware is available, of course, but we can't help but wonder whether players willing to spend $200 on a console like this wouldn't also be willing to spend $350 on the likes of an Xbox One instead.