The reveal of the shield was months ago, and since then it's still unknown by many within the industry (including pro gamers) how this will end up.
While it definitely targets the more serious gamers with capabilities like PC streaming, etc., this is really Nvidia dipping its toes in the retail arena, starting with mobile.
A leader in portable real gaming has yet to emerge, and until recently it's been a showdown between PS Vita & the 3DS line. Mobile game development has really started to mature and and so has mobile hardware (tablets/phones/etc.) and seriously cut into the value proposition for portable game systems.
Unfortunately, the control experience hasn't kept up and this is a serious gap that may present opportunity.
Nvidia already has a platform (Tegra) that performs extremely well with respect to gaming, and by selecting Android has access to a potential existing library of games that could be easily ported over to seed their ecosystem.
As someone else mentioned, the dynamics of gamers are extremely diverse. Serious FPS players may only play PC, but also 'moonlight' as casual sports gamers on console. And all gamers have the same basic needs when it comes to portable gaming that at present is only available from Nintendo & Sony.
Bottom line, many gamers suspect that Nvidia may attempt to produce their own hardware console in the future, and this could be the precursor. It is a bit 'something for everybody' so it's hard to say whether that will be compelling enough for anybody. Most of the gamers I interact with say that they'll wait for v2.
As a graduate of the BizSpark program, $100 gets you full license to the software you were using. Software licenses are then transferred to your organization. You don't suddenly incur $1000s of expenses.
While it definitely targets the more serious gamers with capabilities like PC streaming, etc., this is really Nvidia dipping its toes in the retail arena, starting with mobile.
A leader in portable real gaming has yet to emerge, and until recently it's been a showdown between PS Vita & the 3DS line. Mobile game development has really started to mature and and so has mobile hardware (tablets/phones/etc.) and seriously cut into the value proposition for portable game systems.
Unfortunately, the control experience hasn't kept up and this is a serious gap that may present opportunity.
Nvidia already has a platform (Tegra) that performs extremely well with respect to gaming, and by selecting Android has access to a potential existing library of games that could be easily ported over to seed their ecosystem.
As someone else mentioned, the dynamics of gamers are extremely diverse. Serious FPS players may only play PC, but also 'moonlight' as casual sports gamers on console. And all gamers have the same basic needs when it comes to portable gaming that at present is only available from Nintendo & Sony.
Bottom line, many gamers suspect that Nvidia may attempt to produce their own hardware console in the future, and this could be the precursor. It is a bit 'something for everybody' so it's hard to say whether that will be compelling enough for anybody. Most of the gamers I interact with say that they'll wait for v2.