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NVIDIA Updates SHIELD With Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, Console Mode, New Titles

Posted by samzenpus on from the latest-and-greatest dept.

MojoKid writes "NVIDIA announced a major update to its SHIELD Android gaming device today, with the over-the-air update delivering the latest build of Android (v4.3 Jelly Bean) to the handheld console. NVIDIA also launched GameStream in order to bring more PC titles to streaming devices. Wait, need more? How about SHIELD Gamepad Mapper, which turns touch-based Android games into ones that can be enjoyed with SHIELD's console-quality controls. Alongside that Android update comes Console Mode, which turns SHIELD into a portable living room game console. Users will be able to pair up a Bluetooth controller, kick back on the couch, indulge in Android games, browse the Web, and watch your favorite movies all at 1080p."

57 comments

  1. Shield $100 Moga $100 I think I'll continue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to just cary one device, and 1 controller. Yeah, I know , sheilds got better graphics, but I don't care, when I want graphics I play on my PC, when I want to play at the airport, the MOGA is awesome.

  2. sounds like an advertisement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    buy your NVIDIA SHIELD(tm) today!

  3. yes but by ozduo · · Score: 1

    will the sword of Fargoal penetrate it http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Sword_of_Fargoal

    --
    I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
  4. Console mode by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And here I thought Console Mode means running vim and bash.

    1. Re:Console mode by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be aswesome if it converted games to animated ASCII art, like VLC can do.

    2. Re:Console mode by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And here I thought Console Mode means running vim and bash.

      Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAvXLqPKxow

  5. So how much did Nvidia pay for this ad? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Huh, I thought I turned off the ads?
    The whole summary reads like an ad: It's not that I'm not interested in news about devices (and Shield has been one of the 'consoles' that has definitely caught my interest lately), but I'd hardly qualify a new update 'news'.

    Even if MojoKid is just a fanboy, the editors should have caught this blatant ad before allowing it to go to the front page.

  6. Exactly like an advertisement. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Things have not "taken off" for the SHIELD but maybe being up to date with Android might help.

    1. Re:Exactly like an advertisement. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, they should also just support AMD gpu's for the streaming to the shield (because 50% of gamers don't have an AMD).

    2. Re:Exactly like an advertisement. by binarylarry · · Score: 2

      Unfortunately, AMD's drivers would have to stop being shit.

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  7. Damn ... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

    Not the SHIELD I was hoping for. ;-)

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Damn ... by nosfucious · · Score: 1

      Nor was it the 'driods I was looking for.

      --
      Q:I was listening to a CD in Grip and it sounded horrible! What's up? A:Perhaps you are listening to country music
    2. Re:Damn ... by Jiro · · Score: 1

      I know there are theories that Coulson is actually an LMD. They did, after all, make a point of there being something strange about Coulson, which suggests he could be an android.

      Also, his explanation of surviving seems a little unlikely if you watch the Avengers movie--but the people he told it to would only have heard about his death third-hand, mostly, and it would be more believable to them than it is to us.

  8. Reaction by Luthair · · Score: 3, Funny

    We've contacted all five users of nVidia Shield and they're quite happy with the update.

    1. Re:Reaction by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Funny

      I know that you're using hyperbole for the purpose of humor, but there's no way that they sold as many as five. You need to be at least somewhat reasonable for it to be believable.

    2. Re:Reaction by dstyle5 · · Score: 1

      I'm sure Mr. Huang and his children are enjoying these devices immensely.

    3. Re:Reaction by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      No kidding, I genuinely did not know this was on sale. I was impressed that they were doing such big updates while it was still in testing.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  9. I don't understand the hate by BLToday · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't understand the hate for SHIELD, yes it's expensive and doesn't do any except gaming. But people buy 3DS/2DS and Vita. This is the same but you get to play your existing Android library of games plus stream gaming. How much are 3DS games vs Android games? You'll make back the difference after about 5-10 games.

    1. Re:I don't understand the hate by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

      I dunno, I buy my DS games at the local thrift store for $3
      I don't have the 3D but my 5yr old doesn't know the difference and that's what this device is geared towards right?
      He's already starting to play some PC games, his only stumbling block is not being able to read. So I don't think it's going to be long before he's done with handhelds just like everyone else. They're fun in that car/bathroom/doctors office, but nothing beats a real PC with a keyboard.

    2. Re:I don't understand the hate by ZombieBraintrust · · Score: 1

      People can already play their existing Android library on their phones.

    3. Re:I don't understand the hate by ZombieBraintrust · · Score: 2

      How much are 3DS games vs Android games?

      Angry Birds Star Wars 3DS(20 exclusive levels, new mulitplayer mode): $25
      Angry Birds Star Wars Android: free with ads and in app purchases.
      Final Fantasy IV DS: $19
      Final Fantasy IV Android: $16

    4. Re:I don't understand the hate by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      I don't understand the hate for SHIELD, yes it's expensive and doesn't do any except gaming. But people buy 3DS/2DS and Vita. This is the same but you get to play your existing Android library of games plus stream gaming. How much are 3DS games vs Android games? You'll make back the difference after about 5-10 games.

      With the portable handhelds from Sony and Nintendo you get a much wider library of games that you can take anywhere. Shield's best games require you to have a powerful PC with NVidia hardware and be at home. If you go anywhere with it you're stuck with a handful of Android games which aren't anywhere near the level of what you'll find available on the other handhelds, and if you have an Android phone, you already have something that can play them. Also, if I have a good gaming PC why would I want to stream it to the Shield? Usually mouse and keyboard controls are better than a controller for most games and if I really wanted to use a controller for some reason, I can just buy a USB controller and plug it in. I think you can even use an Xbox 360 or PS3 controller with a PC with a little bit of setup.

      The only thing that Shield makes sense for is being able to play on my TV if my PC is really far away from my TV or hooking them up would be inconvenient. That's not worth the cost of entry and the rest of the use cases leave it as an inferior choice. I really can't see many people buying this with the idea that they'll get a lot of value out of it. I think most sales have probably been to gadget lovers who have plenty of disposable income to pick up something that they might not use all that much.

    5. Re:I don't understand the hate by Jiro · · Score: 1

      Coca-Cola is cheaper in McDonalds than in a normal restaurant. But the restaurant has better meals, including food that the McDonalds could never offer. Comparing the price of one of the few games that exists on both types of system is like comparing the price of the Coke at a McDonalds and a normal restaurant.

      3DS games in general cannot be price-compared to Android games in general. The few examples that are the same game and can be compared are atypical.

    6. Re:I don't understand the hate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The hate for nvidia's shield is related to the fact that "shield" was a budding generic term for an add-on breadboard for a SoC computer (e.g. arduino, raspberry pi, etc have tons of different "shields" available -- e.g. LCD display shield, cell phone shield, wifi shield, blue tooth shield, relay shield, motor control shield, etc); then Nvidia noticed the popularity and stole it as a registered trademark for a specific product.

    7. Re:I don't understand the hate by Tr3vin · · Score: 1

      Gamer here. The reason people hate the SHIELD is that mobile games pale in comparison to games for dedicated systems. Having existing android games is a great idea, but it assumes that they work well with game pad input. Since most phones don't have physical buttons, developers have to create for the touch only interfaces if they want to be successful. Sure, you can do virtual touch buttons, but the best mobile games get away from buttons and instead use some form of gesture or swipes to control things. They take on a different form than the types of games you play on a 3DS or Vita.

      The other reason that the SHIELD isn't going to work out is the price differential. You make a point about making back the difference after a few games. To me, that isn't really worth it. The best of Android gaming comes nowhere close to some of the even more mediocre 3DS and Vita titles. The average Joe might not tell the difference and be perfectly content with the games on their phone, but they also are not the target audience for this device. A gamer typically expects a higher production value and game structure that is not feasible to support on a mobile platform. People expect $1 / freemium games, so selling a larger game at a higher price that more accurately covers its production costs is a death sentence.

      Angry Birds is actually a great example of how games monetize on various platforms. In the app stores, it is going to cost $1 max, because people generally aren't willing to spend more. This is the price that the market has decided on, mostly based off of the pricing models set by Apple. Now, to make more money off of the user, they will provide various forms of DLC, whether it is a set of levels or simply letting to skip a level. The console versions of the game, which function exactly the same, will cost about the price of other games for that console, potentially a bit less to set it apart. Still, they will charge at least 20x the entry cost of the mobile app, based on pricing expectations and what the market will allow.

      The SHIELD has an issue here because it doesn't fit squarely into either pricing scheme. It is a capable device and could deliver gameplay comparable to that of the 3DS or Vita. That said, it is building off of Android which until now consists of mainly throw away games. The only real chance Nvidia has with it is to put money out there to get some higher end games on it. Otherwise, gamers like me aren't going to spring for it to be stuck playing what amounts to glorified flash games that were free and everywhere only a few years ago. At least with the 3DS and Vita, gamers know that they will be able to play titles from Nintendo and Sony. They have a reputation built up with their previous games, and we as gamers know what to expect quality wise. The SHIELD has none of this. There are no titles to sell it, nor have there been any promises of studios working on anything worth experiencing.

    8. Re:I don't understand the hate by LordWabbit2 · · Score: 1

      Xbox controller you can just plug in, windows will recognize it, PS3 you need to download drivers.

      --
      There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
    9. Re:I don't understand the hate by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      Making back the difference is no good if the games you want aren't available on Android. Frankly the best tablet games are all aimed at tablet interfaces anyway.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  10. You know what upgrade this needs? by manicbutt · · Score: 1

    A $100 price cut. I'm old, I like mobile games, I like emulators, but this is just too dear for me. The Nexus 7 does more for less money (books, magazines, videos, on a screen I'd like to look at for a while, with more storage space) and Chinese tablets like the JXD S7800B add gaming controls to Google Play games.

  11. Whatever by Turmoyl · · Score: 1

    Why do some OEMs continue to act as if Android games are so great that we'd want to play them on a big screen?

    1. Re:Whatever by kamapuaa · · Score: 1

      It's a chicken & the egg type problem - there's no good android games because there's no good hardware, and there's no good hardware because there's no good android games...

      The hardware makers have to no this won't catch on quickly & right away, but if they make the hardware available perhaps some games Android controller-based games will be developed, which will make the hardware more common, which will make the games more common, and pretty soon everybody's buying better & extra Android devices in order to play some games.

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
  12. Weird grammar by sideslash · · Score: 4, Funny

    Users (third person plural) will be able to watch your (second person) favorite movies. Does that sound creepy to anyone else?

  13. I'm with you on this one by goldcd · · Score: 2

    I've got an HTC One (that's a fine phone), but controls are f'in awful for some games. I can appreciate what many devs are trying to do, but some games simply need physical controls.
    I'm very nearly going to buy a MOGA for those, but then that's just some handheld controls applied to a few games.
    I *love* the idea of being able to stream my games from my PC to a handheld within my house, and decent controls chucked in, but... well it's really f'in obvious what the issue is. Most of the tech in the shield is already approximated in my phone and if I chucked on a MOGA than as far as I can see "I've bought a Shield" hardware-wise. Just seems wasteful to buy the hardware all over again.
    What nVidia should be doing is adding the remote streaming in as a Tegra4 function. If the HTCTwo, or Galaxy5 gave me the streaming ability, and I just had to pick up a MOGA, then I'd be happy as a pig in shit (and it would certainly influence my choice of my *next* phone).

    1. Re:I'm with you on this one by tepples · · Score: 1

      but some games simply need physical controls.
      I'm very nearly going to buy a MOGA for those, but then that's just some handheld controls applied to a few games.

      What's wrong with applying appropriate controls to the games that need it? Or is it just a case of buying a $40 controller to play a $3 game?

  14. SHIELD Gamepad Mapper IS important - for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    SHIELD Gamepad Mapper is the feature I have been waiting for!
    For years I have been frustrated with having to retrain my reflexes when switching between similar console games like FPS, or beat'em ups. One game insists on throwing grenades with button X or Z the other one with A or B. Or in the heat of the battle, instead of hitting your enemy on the head, you find yourself ducking cowardly, just because you are so used to playing a similar game with a different button layout. Add to that the fact that I am left-handed and not even all games support switching of analog sticks.
    So, yes, freely configurable buttons ARE important for me!
    The SHIELD is the first handheld in history with two analog sticks and freely remappable buttons. This makes it stand out BIG TIME from the rest. Reason to buy for me.

  15. Updating SHIELD by maroberts · · Score: 1

    NVIDIA Updates SHIELD With Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, Console Mode, New Titles

    Why can't they update SHIELD with Captain America, Hulk and Thor?

    --

    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

    1. Re:Updating SHIELD by maroberts · · Score: 1

      SHIELD - now with added Coulson 2.0

      --

      Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
      Karma: Chameleon

  16. Sony Xperia Play by Dusthead+Jr. · · Score: 1

    The Shield reminds me of the Xperia Play that I bought almost 3 years ago. I thought that it was going to be the start of real mobile phone gaming, but sony treated it a a stepchild. The hardware was mediocre at best, and the screen was the worst kind of LCD. But it was a convenient machine. I really hoped to see either a Play 2, or another company tackle the a gameing phone.

  17. Entry barriers; desktops; platformers by tepples · · Score: 0

    With the portable handhelds from Sony and Nintendo you get a much wider library of games that you can take anywhere.

    You have the library of games published by Sony and Nintendo licensees. It's historically been far less expensive for an indie developer to get a game onto Google Play Store than onto Sony's and Nintendo's store. For instance, Nintendo wouldn't let Robert Pelloni develop Bob's Game for the DS because his business was home-based.

    Android games which aren't anywhere near the level of what you'll find available on the other handhelds

    In what sense do you mean "not anywhere near the level"? Please clarify.

    Also, if I have a good gaming PC why would I want to stream it to the Shield?

    Because your good gaming PC is a desktop PC stuck on a desk in a different room of your home, and a Shield thin client is cheaper than a gaming laptop.

    Usually mouse and keyboard controls are better than a controller for most games

    I'm not sure what you meant by "most". What would a mouse do for a platformer like Mega Man or Castlevania series or a fighting game like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat series? And if player 1 is using a mouse and keyboard, what do players 2-4 use?

    1. Re:Entry barriers; desktops; platformers by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      You have the library of games published by Sony and Nintendo licensees. It's historically been far less expensive for an indie developer to get a game onto Google Play Store than onto Sony's and Nintendo's store. For instance, Nintendo wouldn't let Robert Pelloni develop Bob's Game for the DS because his business was home-based.

      Most people who would buy a Shield already own a smartphone where they can get that game if they really want it.

      In what sense do you mean "not anywhere near the level"? Please clarify.

      Here's an example 3DS game that will be out for the platform soon. There's nothing on Android that's going to compete with that. Not even iOS gets much in the way of larger games, and most of the ones that they do get are ports of old console games. Most of what's available for phones are $.99 apps that are designed to be an easy way to kill ten minutes. There's nothing wrong with that, but we haven't seen very many games that are more sophisticated than that, and most of the ones that have come out are console ports.

      Because your good gaming PC is a desktop PC stuck on a desk in a different room of your home, and a Shield thin client is cheaper than a gaming laptop.

      And a 50 ft. HDMI cable and wireless mouse/keyboard are even cheaper. Besides, the people who want to game on their TV in the living room likely already have a console. Would they really want to drop another $300 just to be able to stream from their PC assuming that they even have a good gaming PC or an NV graphics card?

      I'm not sure what you meant by "most". What would a mouse do for a platformer like Mega Man or Castlevania series or a fighting game like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat series? And if player 1 is using a mouse and keyboard, what do players 2-4 use?

      There are certainly genres of games where a controller works better, but those types of games usually aren't the popular PC titles that most people play and many of those games aren't released for PC. Of the PC titles listed as supported by Shield, it looks like almost all of them are also available for console and many are FPS games where a keyboard/mouse combination works better. The types of games that would work best on Shield usually aren't ported to the PC and even the Android games for the device are either ports of old console games or available for other Android devices.

      The Nvidia Shield is a solution looking for a problem. To use half of the features requires a gaming PC with Nvidia hardware that's already going to provide a better experience for the titles available for it than using a controller. The Android game library is nowhere near large enough to justify a $300 purchase price, especially when most of those games can already be played on your phone. It does a lot of things, but it does them all worse than other solutions making the market for the device rather limited.

  18. One TINY problem... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nvidia's most senior spokesperson has stated that Shield (1) is obsolete. Shield 2 is coming, using the insanely improved Tegra 5 chip- a part that brings PC class graphics technology to ARM SoC parts for the first time.

    Shield 1 uses Tegra 4- a somewhat improved version of Tegra 3, Nvidia's first proper ARM SoC part (Tegra 2 lacked NEON, the universal ARM FPU engine, and worse could NOT display high definition video in the most common format, H264). Tegra 5 is the FIRST part in Nvidia's intended proper family of high-end ARM parts. Even Tegra 5 misses ARM-64 bit, but Nvidia will be releasing the vastly improved Tegra 6, using ARMv8 (64-bit) towards the end of 2014, maybe as early as next Summer.

    The current Shield is a fine experiment, but likely to be little used by 99% of the nerds that buy one. Everything it does is done MUCH better by existing methods. Its hardware is weak, its display small and unremarkable, and its ability to play SOME PC games remotely of near zero interest to average PC games who PC game precisely because they are willing to sit in front of a proper PC with big display, keyboard and mouse.

    In other words, it's bad as a small tablet, bad against proper tablets, bad as a way to stream video to your TV, and mediocre as a way to play PC games streamed to a remote location wirelessly. But it is GOOD as an active experiment into other forms of Android format. Shield 2 will be more powerful than a PS3 (reputedly, if you trust Nvidia), and the idea of a device this compact capable of running games like GTA V is quite remarkable.

    After Nintendo COMPLETELY dropped the ball with the Wii U (ignoring the concept of remote play almost entirely), remote play is about to become the next big thing, with both the Xbone and PS4 supporting this concept, and the PS4 making it possible to play almost every new PS4 console game on their handheld. Again, I don't think remote play will ever be as significant for PC gamers, so AMD/ATI will be the big winner here (they design all the next-gen console hardware) not Nvidia.

  19. Emulation, the legal way by tepples · · Score: 1

    if they make the hardware available perhaps some games Android controller-based games will be developed

    You could start by running homebrew NES games in an NES emulator for Android. (Disclosure: I have developed such games.) Or if you have a Retrode cartridge reader, you can use those to copy Super NES and Genesis carts from a retro games store to your Android device and emulate those.

    1. Re:Emulation, the legal way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've heard of Pirate Bay, right? People technically savvy enough to figure out emulators would just download it via bittorrent.

  20. Followers loading your recommendations by tepples · · Score: 1

    Other users being able to load your film recommendations into their respective queues doesn't sound so creepy in today's share-happy Facebook/Twitter culture, and not in the blog culture that preceded it. If you like a web page about a movie or post about your favorite movies, whoever follows your posts might get an idea of what to watch next.

  21. Shield with Terga 4 by CFBMoo1 · · Score: 1

    All I know is I bought the device and it's pretty nice for what it is. It may not be the greatest thing but it works and does what it's supposed to do for me. Most other gadgets I buy like the shield aren't build this great and it feels like a really solid device and won't break very easy. I'm happy and the update went in smoothly for me with no problems at all.

    --
    ~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
    1. Re:Shield with Terga 4 by CFBMoo1 · · Score: 1

      I've played my Shield after the updates and things seem to be running nicer then they were before the update. I noticed that things look a little more smoother and crisper even with my finger prints smudged on the screen.

      --
      ~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
    2. Re:Shield with Terga 4 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I've got an Ouya, GCW Zero, & Shield(and a DS lite which has seen little use in the last several years). Of the three the Shield is the one that I still use from time-to-time. It still has the potential to be the best, but what I really liked was the PC game streaming, unfortunately the screen res is kind of dense and much text is difficult to read w/o anything from slight to a great deal of tweaking. Also the limitation of NOT being able to stream from mobile parts, e.g. 780m is a PITA, esp. when considering it at least matches my OCed 670 on the desktop which is allowed to stream all day, not to mention the number of people that I see buying notebooks and using them like little desktop blocks, i.e. attaching mouse, kb, other peripherals, etc. monitors, speakers, etc. and pretending like, as previously mentioned, that it was just a funny looking desktop... (I actually use mine as notebooks, although for gaming I will attach external mice, but almost never attach to a monitor.)

      Ouya: heh. Played with that one a bit when I finally got mine, but it felt clunky, old, and stale. Not much better than some of the allwinner A10 sticks that I played around with before.

      Zero: On the plus side it's running a gaming centric linux "distro", but on the minus by the time it was actually delivered it felt old and behind the times. Not to mention the sticky d-pad which is just a killer.

      DS lite: well even with the Supercard slot1 addon(w/ARM coproc and some mem) it was just too late, and never really took off than some homebrew was ported to run on the ARM onboard the card. (I bought the card before the rpi, allwinner sticks, etc. were available with the idea of running various sw on it in a small portable...)

      Back to those android sticks: ended up with a Roku 3, which just does a MUCH better job overall as a media station than the allwinner/etc. sticks. They're not really all that useful as linux microstations either, so they now gather dust.

      rpi: needs an upgrade, as in booted to a15 arch, and more on the big WTF broadcomm secret block that eben drools about all of the time, but realistically I'd just go with one of the new x86 based boards. They're getting closer in overall power usage, and processing/GPU power is just well... good luck ARM on that front, even AMD's entirely lost it, and IMNHO Intel>>>>IBM>>>>>>>AMD>>>>>>>>>>MIPS(well there's not really one monolithic center for these any longer)>ARM

  22. That's Disney's job by tepples · · Score: 1

    Why can't they update SHIELD with Captain America, Hulk and Thor?

    Because that's Disney's job. Disney can choose to make a SHIELD game for the SHIELD handheld, but I guess a major studio would see better ROI in Nintendo 3DS.

  23. Grokster-compliant by tepples · · Score: 1

    You've heard of Pirate Bay, right?

    I was talking about what NVIDIA is allowed to promote for its handheld. A company can advertise legal uses for its product, not infringing uses. See MGM v. Grokster.

    1. Re:Grokster-compliant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dunnow. "Download emulators to play home brewed games!" would make for pretty ridiculous advertising, except as a sneaky way to say "you can play Mario on this!" Homebrew games are a hobbyist thing.

      I'm sure there's a way to make standalone executables of the homebrew game, if there's one with some sort of mass appeal.

    2. Re:Grokster-compliant by tepples · · Score: 1

      I'm sure there's a way to make standalone executables of the homebrew game

      True, and this is commonplace on iOS (see: Battle Kid 2) since Apple loosened the restrictions on interpreters sometime in 2010, so long as the interpreted code is included in the app package.

  24. Just in time for 4.4... awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    [nt]

  25. Re:Shield $100 Moga $100 I think I'll continue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to just cary one device, and 1 controller.

    If you're going to carry one Android device, it should be a HTC phone. It's been tested as a shield and worked well.
    http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/10/29/13/46/man-s-phone-stops-bullet-aimed-at-chest

  26. Shield vs. 3DS by tepples · · Score: 1

    Here's an example 3DS game that will be out for the platform soon. There's nothing on Android that's going to compete with that.

    A Link Between Worlds looks a polished follow-up to A Link to the Past. But so does Ittle Dew is on OUYA, an Android-based minor game console.

    Most of what's available for phones are $.99 apps that are designed to be an easy way to kill ten minutes.

    I wonder how much of that is because point-and-click input lends itself toward such short, simple games. The other problem is failure of Google Play Store to supported priced apps in more countries at launch. This forced developers to offer their apps without charge with advertisements, which in turn lowered end users' price expectations across the board.

    And a 50 ft. HDMI cable and wireless mouse/keyboard are even cheaper.

    Provided you happen not live in an area where only licensed electricians are allowed to cut holes in walls, and provided your landlord happens to let you cut a hole through the wall, and provided you can somehow solve the ground loop problem that adolf pointed out. These problems may have a solution; I just can't think of it at the moment.

    Besides, the people who want to game on their TV in the living room likely already have a console.

    That's fine until you look at the web site of the game you want to buy and see "PC: Buy Now! Consoles: We are seeking a publisher to bring $TITLE to consoles." Or "PC: Buy Now! $COMPETING_CONSOLE: Buy Now!" and no mention of the console that one happens to already own.

    The Nvidia Shield is a solution looking for a problem.

    The problem is lack of a platform for controller-oriented games that's both well-known and indie-friendly. OUYA didn't take off nearly as well as I'd hoped. Some developers have been forced to completely reimagine their games to be point-and-click because that's what phones and PCs are good at.

    To use half of the features requires a gaming PC with Nvidia hardware

    Likewise, to use some features of the Game Boy Advance required a GameCube and link cable.

    The Android game library is nowhere near large enough to justify a $300 purchase price

    The same is true of the launch of any console that doesn't have a lot of compelling back-compat to fall back on. Or did Nintendo expect people to buy a 3DS for $250 and play DS games on it all day?

  27. "Console Mode" by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

    OS update adds the console gaming functionality to a gaming console, that's fascinating. I hope other platforms follow suite, e.g. that Mozilla Firefox 25 brings web browsing to the table, or that Windows 8.1's notepad can write to files.

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