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.

  • slomo4sho
    Who would be foolish enough to pre-order this for $350?
    Reply
  • cknobman
    And all Nvidia hears is?
    ......crickets
    Reply
  • ubercake
    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.
    Reply
  • none12345
    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.
    Reply
  • bikeordie1
    And sadly Nvidia can maintain the entire pre-order database with the measly processing power found in said device
    Reply
  • teh_chem
    Pre-orders...LOL
    Reply
  • dalethepcman
    At $99 Ouya had me interested enough to throw down. At $350 Nvidia only has me interested enough to post this comment.
    Reply
  • TheMadFapper
    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.
    Reply
  • ubercake
    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...
    Reply
  • shikamaru31789
    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.
    Reply