Nvidia's Shield Adds 'Half-Life 2: Episode Two,' Three More Games To Google Play

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By Rexly Peñaflorida
published

At launch, Nvidia's Shield Android TV device only had a handful of games available for purchase via the Google Play Store. However, the company wants to change that as fast as possible, not only with more games, but popular ones as well.

The most well-known of the four new games on the marketplace is Half-Life 2: Episode Two ($7.99). The game already made its way to the living room screen in past consoles through Valve's The Orange Box, which also included Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Still, its addition to the Google Play Store not only expands its availability, but could also introduce the game to a new group of players.

The other new titles include Q.U.B.E.: Director's Cut ($9.99); a new edition of the first-person, puzzle-based game, Never Alone ($14.99); a platformer about the Iñupiat, an Alaskan Native tribe; and Funk of Titans ($4.99), another 2D-platformer title.

If the catalog of the Google Play Store isn't to your liking, there's always Nvidia's GRID system, which streams games from the company's servers to the device. The service is free and was supposed to switch to a subscription-based product at the beginning of July. However, Nvidia announced last week that GRID will remain free until the end of July.

Hopefully, we'll find out more about the subscription pricing for the basic (720p, 30 fps) and premium (1080p, 60 fps) plans.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Rexly Peñaflorida
7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • BrunoGaret
    Three games to Google Play?

    HALF-LIFE 3 CONFIRMED!!!
    Reply
  • kawininjazx
    Awesome brand new top of the line games that no one has played before.
    Reply
  • somebodyspecial
    Port the best games of the last 20 years as fast as you can, and enhance the ones that can be graphically upgraded some for X1. Most kids today (especially the poor ones) have not played any of them, and some of us old folks missed more than a few too and some would buy out of nostalgia (that's how good old game GOG started right?). Take the money made from the ports and make new content ASAP. This can be done pretty fast (port linux games, console games etc). Note how fast Valve grew the linux catalog from a 100 games to 1000+. Linux games are already half there as they're on OpenGL for the most part (mac too probably). Take on tougher ports only for the best titles (from DirectX etc). Just don't hire the guys that did batman arkham knight...LOL and make sure they're POLISHED and up to snuff before putting them out. A year (or so) after exclusive to tegra X1/K1 make them able to play on ARM in general if you don't make enough back to at least break even on any game after that exclusive time. Again, the sales from those add to making pure exclusive content for shield TV that fully exploits X1 and forward. The whole point here is to amass money from the low hanging fruit so you can make brand new IP exclusive to Shield TV (and beyond, next handheld, tablet etc) that is BETTER than xbox360/ps3 using full power of X1 and beyond. That will help sell more devices and solidify the platform going forward. Glad they made GRID free for july, maybe extend it one more month to gain more users. Not many can get through 50+ games in 2 months anyway, and keep adding more. All of it adds value to Shield TV owners and future devices will have an even larger library to help sell the next rev of hardware. Steam kept at this for 10yrs and now they have ~80mil users last I checked.

    NV should start hiring teams themselves for a gaming division that puts out games maximizing their hardware (like Grimrock guys, 6 guys who know what they're doing). Until you get that going massively pay people like gameloft etc to put out some good stuff. Pay their wages then split the profits of the game with them or something so they're at low risk and want to do the projects for your device. You have to inspire them somehow until there are enough units out there to make them want to dev for your devices. IE, nobody but the console makers themselves make games for new gen consoles until they cross the 10mil units+ mark. So to get smaller devs (who are often stuck struggling for funding) to make games pay to get the game made (wages) but their bonus is a portion of the profits :) NV is making ~600mil a year, so they can afford 30-50mil a year in funding this type of stuff (heck maybe 100mil). You could put out 10-20 pretty good games a year for that. Games like puzzle stuff, adventure types (point click that seems to sell many these days, walking dead etc) don't cost 5mil/game usually so you can save on that type of stuff to put out a few really good action/strategy/rpg types each year to get more hardcore types.

    My 2c on how to move the platform forward. Oh, and make sure games don't cost over $30 for the top games. Grimrock2 etc shows you can make great games under $30 (torchlights, trine games etc). They just have to be a LOT of fun.
    Reply
  • clairedunphy999
    sounds good! I will try!
    Reply
  • hst101rox
    The shield can't handle the latest games and HL2 is a nice addition. Maybe Duke Nukem will come too?
    Reply
  • somebodyspecial
    16185675 said:
    The shield can't handle the latest games and HL2 is a nice addition. Maybe Duke Nukem will come too?

    Not sure what you mean. Shield can run Unreal 4 engine. You might have to tone details down in some cases, but it is maxwell gpu at heart. My point was porting, and then making new IP that runs maximizing shields X1 tech. No different than making a console game (which btw already turn down PC details too, no shocker). Just in this case you take a PC game and already have the same exact gpu they made the game for running inside X1, so less porting work.

    Consoles can't handle the latest games either... :) Hence upscaling etc, details down etc. No ~120w or less (40w in NV's case) console type unit will run full on PC titles with every detail on (heck PC's have trouble in some games without 2 cards at certain levels). So I don't get your point. X1 is a major leap up from Xbox360/ps3 which is a good thing, especially for poor gamers. They will end up getting better new IP on Android then xbox360/ps3 which don't get much these days in new content (though still continue to be very good sellers hardware wise). IE, you won't be running the unreal4/unity5 games coming soon on xbox360/ps3, but you have a shot at those with details down on X1 and forward as it's based on full maxwell with all it's OpenGL4.5 etc features. It's just a question of how much details get turned off to play at a decent fps, but not that you can't run them as is the case with older consoles.

    It will only get better with the next gen too which may come with HBM2 etc, to really put a dent in Xbox1/ps4 for real. They will be relegated to only pure hardcore people at that point which will kill them. The hard core people buy in the first 3yrs, then the majority of buyers are all casual users who buy in once there's a lot of content out for consoles. Those buyers will be on mobile this time as 16nm starts to take a bite from consoles (far larger than 20nm X1 has) and 10nm just around the block will do even more damage with many helpers such as HBM2 etc. Consoles are stuck in stone for too long these days and they aimed way too low this gen as such mobile will catch them mid cycle.
    Reply
  • hst101rox
    Oh sorry I was talking about Shield Portable not the full console. And I don't know much about the Nvidia products. Yeah 40 watts is power efficient for a console.
    Reply