NVIDIA Drops Price of Shield to $300; Shipping June 27th

[dgstorm]

Here is some welcome news for folks who pre-ordered or were simply considering purchasing the new NVIDIA Shield portable gaming device. They dropped the price from $349.99 to $299.99, and announced the official ship date of June 27th! How's that for great news to chase away the Thursday morning blahs?

Of course, the Shield obviously still has an uphill battle ahead of it. With the new Sony PS4 and Xbox One consoles set to hit retail shelves later this year, the Shield might be hard-pressed to compete for the average family's gaming dollar. Still, for folks who don't mind spending the money for a bunch of devices, or if you are only interested in the portability options afforded by the Shield, then this price drop is very good news. It's also pretty exciting to think we will be able to get one in just a week!

Here's NVIDIA's full presser,

A new kind of open gaming device needs a new kind of development process.

Rather than being secretive about SHIELD and what it can do, we decided to bring gamers in on the conspiracy, announcing our plan to bring a portable gaming device with console-class controls and a high-def 5-inch screen to market in January at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Most of all, we wanted this device to be open and provide the best possible experience—whether you’re playing Android or PC games, or enjoying your favorite movies, music, and other apps on the go.

Since then, we’ve put SHIELD in the hands of thousands of gamers. Some have been professional press. Others have been inside our own company. But most have been people like the tens of thousands who streamed through our booth at PAX East and E3.

And their reactions have been more than just positive.

They’ve helped us build a better product. Feedback from gamers is why SHIELD’s triggers have the perfect throw length. Why SHIELD’s buttons have just the right amount of give. Why SHIELD’s thumb sticks are so satisfying to flick. Why playing games on SHIELD’s pure Android software feels so slick.

The result: while SHIELD isn’t available until June 27th – we’re making that official today – it’s already grabbed awards by the fistful – including dozens of ‘Best of Show’ awards at CES, Computex and E3.

Now it’s time for one more change.

We’ve heard from thousands of gamers that if the price was $299, we’d have a home run.

So we’re changing the price of SHIELD to $299.

If you’ve already pre-ordered SHIELD, you’ll be charged the new, lower price. You will only be charged $299 when the product ships.

We want to get SHIELD into the hands of as many gamers as possible.

That’s because we think they’ll have the same reaction to it as thousands of gamers already have: joy.

Source: SHIELD Gets Final Touch Before Its Release ? a Better Price

 

[MA83]

I wish the screen detached.

 

[dvdcatalyst]

I wish the screen detached.

While it would have been handy, it would mean that all the bulk of the insides would be in the screen, rather than the controller part. With active cooling on top of that, it would be quite bulky.

 

[MA83]

Very true. And I understand that. I just like that part of the wikipad better. It's something that can be used professionally and for play.

 

[dvdcatalyst]

Very true. And I understand that. I just like that part of the wikipad better. It's something that can be used professionally and for play.

Oh, completely. I don't see the Shield as a tablet. While it is obviously capable of just about everything a tablet can do, the design is purely focused on gaming.

Personally, I could care less about what it runs. Android is fine, but it it was running Windows RT, Blackberry 10 or even Windows 3.11, it would be all good as long as it does the PC streaming.

To each its own, but I've always hoped that portable systems (Nintendo DS, PSP, Nintendo 3DS, PS Vita etc) would enable someone to play a "big" game portable, but unfortunately, the majority of the games (unless you look at PS1 games on the PSP) are all modified to be "bite-size".

The Shield with its streaming will actually do what I always wanted, being able to have a game like Fallout New Vegas / Skyrim in your hands. Sit on the couch, without having a laptop in front of me taking up the coffee table, just lean back and relaxed.