While the gaming world readies itself for the upcoming next-gen gaming console war, there’s another, less-discussed fight for aimed at PC gamers brewing. If you follow the gaming industry, you’ve already heard of Valve’s upcoming line of Steam Boxes, but they are not the only PC gaming giant targeting the “stream your PC games to other devices” market. Chief among these challengers is the already-available Nvidia Shield. Although Nvidia is positive about the performance of their handheld device, the fact that the commercial exists suggests market saturation is not as high as the company would want.
(Yes, the Shield also plays Android games, but the focus of this post, and Nvidia’s ad, is on streaming PC games.)
Granted, it is the time of the year to focus on holiday sales, but Nvidia’s ad is presenting the Shield as something of a new discovery. It might help if they put some of the focus on the solid ratings the device has been getting, especially as a device for streaming PC games to other output devices. Nevertheless, if you were unaware or unsure of what the main draw for the Nvidia Shield is, after watching their latest video for it, the confusion will be gone.
If you’re a PC gamer who wants to stream their games to other devices and you don’t want to pay the potentially steep price for a Steam Box, Nvidia has a device just for you. Yes, most hardcore PC gamers already understand the process of transferring their gameplay to another output device like a 52-inch plasma television. This, however, is normally accomplished with HDMI wires, whereas the Shield streams games via the owner’s WiFi network. For those of you wondering about Android games being supported by the Shield’s gamepad, Nvidia is addressing this, too:
Today, Nvidia will announce that it has “mapped” hundreds of new games not originally designed for the Shield to the device’s controls. In other words, the company has made it possible for the console to play a greater variety of games without the involvement of those games’ developers.
Does such knowledge help with your decision to purchase an Nvidia Shield? Let us know what you think.
[Lead image courtesy of Nvidia]