Nvidia Starts Taking Pre-orders for Tegra 4-powered Shield

Nvidia is now taking preorders for its Shield handheld gaming device, which was officially named, dated, and priced earlier this week. On Tuesday morning, Nvidia revealed that it would be dropping the 'project' from Project Shield and launching pre-orders on May 20. However, it seems the company has decided to move the pre-order date forward a little.

Nvidia this morning emailed us to let us know it had changed its Shield preorder launch date from Monday, May 20, to today, May 17. It's not a huge amount of extra time, just a weekend, but if you've been gagging for Shield for months, you'll probably be glad of the change. Then again, if you're really that into Shield, you probably signed up for updates via the Shield website and so were able to pre-order before everyone else anyway. Nvidia cites "excitement generated by the Nvidia Shield news" as the reason for partners launching pre-orders early.

Shield is a 5-inch Android-based mounted on a game pad. It sports a quad-core Tegra 4 SoC, a 5-inch capacitive multi-touch screen, and Google's full-blown Android "Jelly Bean" OS. There are also two built-in speakers, Wireless-N connectivity, HDMI output, a microUSB port, a microSD card slot, 32 GB of internal storage and 2 GB of RAM. Pricing is set at $349 and the device will be available via Newegg, GameStop, Micro Center and Canada Computers.

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cknobman May 17, 2013, 10:45 AM

And all Nvidia hears is?
......crickets
13
slomo4sho May 17, 2013, 10:41 AM

Who would be foolish enough to pre-order this for $350?
12
dalethepcman May 17, 2013, 11:10 AM

At $99 Ouya had me interested enough to throw down. At $350 Nvidia only has me interested enough to post this comment.
11

Other Comments

slomo4sho May 17, 2013, 10:41 AM

Who would be foolish enough to pre-order this for $350?
12
cknobman May 17, 2013, 10:45 AM

And all Nvidia hears is?
......crickets
13
ubercake May 17, 2013, 10:50 AM

Is there some real selling point? Some platform-specific titles that would entice people to want to go this way? At this price point, it seems like a bad idea.
6
none12345 May 17, 2013, 10:54 AM

Am i the only one who isnt interested one little bit about this thing? (not a dig at toms for reporting it, just saying).
I only clicked on the article because i had no idea what shield was, but man this thing is dumb.
4
bikeordie1 May 17, 2013, 10:59 AM

And sadly Nvidia can maintain the entire pre-order database with the measly processing power found in said device
1
teh_chem May 17, 2013, 11:02 AM

Pre-orders...LOL
3
dalethepcman May 17, 2013, 11:10 AM

At $99 Ouya had me interested enough to throw down. At $350 Nvidia only has me interested enough to post this comment.
11
TheMadFapper May 17, 2013, 11:31 AM

Android games really aren't that fun. I'd rather have a 3DS. All of the RPGs are top-down hack-n-slash titles that take a few hours to complete. Or else you have to pay in-game for anything interesting.
1
ubercake May 17, 2013, 11:45 AM

I'm just dreaming about how sweet it will be to play SongPop and WordsWithFriends with a joystick... Simply awesome... Give me a moment here...
-1
shikamaru31789 May 17, 2013, 11:49 AM

As I said in the last article about the Shield, this thing doesn't have that much value in my opinion. Some rumors had suggested a price as high as $450, so $350 isn't too bad, but still too high in my opinion. What Android games are good enough to buy a $350 device? The main value of this thing is it's PC streaming functionality, if you have a powerful gaming PC that is too big or gaudy to put in a living room, you could buy one of these and stream your PC games to your TV. Or if you already have a small htpc you game on in your living room, and somebody else wants to watch tv, you could keep playing by streaming your games to the Shield's screen. But honestly, is it worth $350 just for that? I don't think it is. And if you have a 500 series or older Nvidia card or an AMD card, you need to pay extra for a new video card just to stream games to the Shield.

The PS4 will have similar functionality, allowing you to stream your PS4 games to the Vita. But the Vita is $250, not $350, and there has been talk of a discount to $200 when the PS4 launches, as well as a PS4/Vita bundle that saves you even more money.
1
ubercake May 17, 2013, 11:50 AM

Ok. I'm good now.
0
rmpumper May 17, 2013, 12:08 PM

Titan sells like hot cakes. No reason why nvidia fanboys would not buy another overprices tech from them (no real difference from Apple bots, if you think about it).
3
ubercake May 17, 2013, 12:26 PM

Anonymous said:

Titan sells like hot cakes. No reason why nvidia fanboys would not buy another overprices tech from them (no real difference from Apple bots, if you think about it).

Hey... I love my Nvidia GPUs just as much as the next guy that ever had to deal with crappy AMD drivers, but I'm not going to be shopping for this Android-on-a-joystick.
0
somebodyspecial May 17, 2013, 12:58 PM

Nobody that has touched this device has said anything but GREAT stuff. Even at google io. Which is probably why they upped the date. Why wait if people are chomping to get at it. Find a bad review of hands on if you can. There are NONE. Nothing else can get your PC to your TV without them being in the same room right next to each other. That's big, and kills the need for a consoles or handheld other than shield. The first run of Titan sold out immediately and it was 100,000. Not sure how many they sold in runs after but it took almost 2 months to have ANY in stock. They came in, and were out of stock in hours each time until 2-3 weeks ago. This won't have trouble selling to them or many 600 series owners who want PC on their TV. This has more power than a Vita or 3DS also. It's a full blown android device too. All apps and games should run on this thing. I see a T4i coming soon I'd guess also with a modem so they can subsidize it through contracts with the carriers. Slight lower power but at 720p that's NO issue cutting the gpu 12 cores. All games would run fast still. That will really bump the sales as a phone also and subsidized. Ouya makes you re-purchase your games. Shield work via tegrazone or googleplay and you don't rebuy your games. They just got faster due to tegra 4
0
sundragon May 17, 2013, 2:05 PM

I would love to see some proper benchmarks of this before I (or anyone) plunks down $350... Wow Nvidia used to be a premier GPU company, what the hell happened?
0
Aaron Briggs May 17, 2013, 2:31 PM

Why are people complaining about price? most of you are willing to spend double or even triple that for a stupid tablet or phone i dont see the difference at leased this can stream real games to it but then again i still dont understand the enjoyment of mobile gaming in my house when i have a TV and or PC
-2
dalethepcman May 17, 2013, 2:35 PM

Anonymous said:

..... Nothing else can get your PC to your TV without them being in the same room right next to each other. That's big, and kills the need for a consoles or handheld other than shield. The first run of Titan sold out immediately and it was 100,000.....

1.)Nothing else can get your PC to your TV without them being in the same room right next to each other. : Intel Widi, wireless USB video, a 100ft HDMI cable, cat 5e/6 hdmi over ethernet adapter and cabling.

2.) That's big, and kills the need for a consoles or handheld other than shield. : Pick your flavor of console exclusives that kill the need for shield in a much greater way. Final Fantasy single player games? Mario? God of War? Halo?

3.) The first run of Titan sold out immediately and it was 100,000. : 90=% of them went to boutique builders and retail and web based stores.

Sorry, but for $350 if you want PC to tv streaming, buy a $100 adapter
1
loops May 17, 2013, 2:45 PM

I would but your gpus are overpriced so I got me a 7870xt for $210.00. And you don't play nice with my card.
/nanananaaaa
1
masmotors May 17, 2013, 2:53 PM

i can see this thing go for same price as the nexus 7 or in the middle of ipad mini and galaxy tab 10 but that price is insane
1
masmotors May 17, 2013, 2:56 PM

if i had money to burn i would buy this i just got a galaxy tab 2 and love that thing
0

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