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Nvidia demos Project SHIELD streaming Borderlands 2 from PC

by Mark Tyson on 6 February 2013, 13:00

Tags: NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), PC

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabshv

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We got a personal demonstration of Nvidia's Project SHIELD at the CES Las Vegas 2013 last month. The new Android handheld looked good, seemed to have plenty of power to play the latest Android games, and came equipped with a 5-inch HD ready touchscreen in a sleek portable form. However Nvidia's Project SHIELD had another trick up its sleeve; playing games streamed directly from your GeForce GTX 600 series equipped PC.

Now Nvidia has released the first in a series of videos showing off the Project SHIELD console in action. This first video shows the Project SHIELD portable Android games console streaming the PC game Borderlands 2.

Will from Nvidia demos Borderlands 2 using his Nvidia project SHIELD with almost no of observable lag between his handheld games console on-screen action and his Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 powered PC, which is shown in the background of the video. While he is playing Will repeatedly mentions the high frame rates and smoothness of the gaming experience on the Project SHIELD console. Will also boasted about the sound quality coming from the Project SHIELD, but of course we can't judge that from simply watching a YouTube video.

To follow up this initial video, Nvidia will be uploading examples of PC games running on the Project SHIELD every Monday. Also every Thursday the company promises to publish videos of the upcoming handheld games console running top Android titles. Please remember the time difference if you want to go and look at Nvidia’s YouTube channel for these new upcoming videos; Thursday in the USA may well mean Friday morning here in the UK, likewise next Monday’s PC streaming video may be uploaded late on Monday / early Tuesday in our time zone.

One key piece of information about the Nvidia Project SHIELD that is yet to be revealed is the price point. The question is; will its price and reliance upon a powerful GeForce GTX 600 series equipped PC in the household, for PC games streaming, limit its market appeal? This and the onset of cheap competition with the Android-TV-games-consoles like OUYA and GameStick utilising your big-screen living room TV, may well mean few sales for the Project SHIELD when it is released.



HEXUS Forums :: 13 Comments

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Posted by Platinum - Wed 06 Feb 2013 13:16
So you can buy a device that lets you play games from a GTX 600 enabled PC on a small handheld console in the same house?

Am I the only one that thinks its totaly nuts, your in a house with a GTX 600 powered , with a keyboard and mouse, and you want to use a handheld device to play the games from it using a controller?
Posted by Chadders87 - Wed 06 Feb 2013 13:29
Platinum
So you can buy a device that lets you play games from a GTX 600 enabled PC on a small handheld console in the same house?

Am I the only one that thinks its totaly nuts, your in a house with a GTX 600 powered , with a keyboard and mouse, and you want to use a handheld device to play the games from it using a controller?

You forgot to highlight the fact that the handheld device has only a 5inch screen. Not exactly a great size for ultimate playing experiences but may be passable for casual games on penny arcade.

I'd be interested if the screen was 11", supported by a mini keyboard rather than controller. Simply, stream to a netbook sized machine. Even better, stream to a netbook.

I'd pay loads for that… laptop gaming with huge upgradeability instead of none, brilliant mobility (sofa / bed / bog… everywhere else is a waste of travelling time), and greater flexibility of uses.

Come on Nvidia…
Posted by brasco - Wed 06 Feb 2013 13:36
Ludicrous product, I honestly don't know who'd want this, maybe the Asian markets like this form factor?
Posted by valhar2000 - Wed 06 Feb 2013 13:55
I agree with the other commenters: I have a hard time imagining situations in which this would be useful. The gaming laptop concept fails because you need to be within range of the computers that sources it, so it's not really very portable, and if it is not portable, you might as well sit down in front of the source computer and not bother with this.

I guess there might be some use for this in cyber-cafes or places like that: have a few very powerful servers and let the people play on small dumb terminals.
Posted by Irien - Wed 06 Feb 2013 13:58
The feature I'm most interested in is the ability to stream to a 1080p tv. In that mode, Shield becomes an ordinary controller, allowing a gaming PC elsewhere in the house to output to the TV in the lounge with a comfy (??) wireless controller driving things.

Obviously it depends on the games you're playing, but *if* it works, it'd allow PC max detail levels to come to the living room without the need to have a gaming-grade PC wheezing away within radius of your TV.

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