When rumours were circulating last year that Nvidia was working with Nintendo on what was then known as the NX, one of the key pointers was the cancellation of the 2016 Shield Tablet device. This added weight to the speculation that the graphics card giant was refocusing its energy elsewhere - and that ended up being the Nintendo Switch.
However, while Nvidia is holding back on creating a new portable device, the company appears to be soldiering on in the domestic arena. Android Police has obtained information and images relating to not one but two new Android TV microconsoles, successors to the original Android TV system which launched in 2015.
Two sizes are shown, and it is suggested that the bigger model could potentially contain more powerful internals. Both come with redesigned pads, ditching the curved look of the original (as well as the touchpad) for a rather odd-looking, polygon-style appearance.
It is expected that these units will be shown off at CES 2017, and given the close proximity of the Switch launch, it's fair to speculate on whether or not these machines will share some common DNA with Nintendo's hybrid system.
Could one of these Shield TV units simply be the Switch without the portability aspect (and Nintendo's games, obviously)? Let us know what you think by posting a comment below.
[source androidpolice.com]
Comments 62
Another Android home console?
Why would anyone buy these?
That contoller looks... painful.
"the company appears to be soldering on in the domestic arena"
Not sure if typo or vague hardware manufacturing pun...
@BornInNorway81 Many reasons. Streaming 4K video, playing games, emulation (runs Radiant Silvergun on the Saturn in HD), music streaming, Plex, Nvidia game streaming, etc. I use mine every day.
@kupocake Well spotted!
Eidos Montreal is making a console?
I love my Shield Android TV. If the new Shield can run Dolphin even better, it's a day-1 purchase for me.
Nice. Was just looking around yesterday for a second one to have upstairs but they seem to be out of stock everywhere. Guess I can hold out until the new versions hit the market.
Geez, that controller is hideous.
@Damo Also, "This added weight to the speculation".
I called it. I said it in the forum that they would announce a new Shield console.
I actually like this news, it helps put to bed some rumours that Nvidia was only working with Nintendo because they couldn't cut it in the tablet scene... which was silly as the techie nerds loved the original Shield.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Not doing too well today!
@Damo We all have those days. The Metro reporters have mostly those days.
This is actually good for Nintendo and the Switch. More reasons to target this architecture means more potential third party support.
I'm also hoping for a second tier Switch in a short turnaround. Would it be impossible in a couple of years to have the Switch, the Switch Go (pocketable) and the Switch Home (performance boosted) all live side by side? Perhaps crazy but with the changing console landscape not impossible.
@Azooooz CONGRATULATIONS!
No.
Never really saw the point in the Shield systems... they don't seem to offer anything special that isn't already available for better value on other systems.
This kinda proves some of those rumors right. If Nvidia is still making these things their way, it could very well be that this is were their new chips went. Nintendo probably convinced them to heavily modify the x1 and in this new shield lies the x2.
I must say it's a little messed up to do that(reveal the new shield). Specially when the switch isn't even out yet but maybe Nvidia is double thinking just how popular the switch will be.
@DragonEleven My brother had an Nvidia Shield, it had more power than many tablets double it's price at the time of launch & had some stylus functionality above it's price range. It embarrassed my Nexus 7, cost less & had games which were specifically optimised to run better on it.
@whanvee Or it could be that Nvidia & Nintendo have agreed to the CES 2017 presentation because the new Shield being revealed with stunning graphics etc. could help boost Switch excitement. Nvidia likely wouldn't be embarrassed to say the Switch would be more powerful considering the Switch isn't limited to being a super-slim tablet.
@DragonEleven Let's see. Full PC game ports, Gamecube and Wii emulation, game streaming, 4K playback, a dedicated controller with options to play with any controller and a damn powerful SoC. I would say these are the things that make the Shield TV superior to any other TV set-top-box.
@DragonEleven
The Shield is a Android TV box, is competing with Apple TV and others. It just offers more features than Apple TV, and is a better device.
Sadly, content for the Android TV Play store is lacking in my country (Denmark), compared to Apple TV. But in some other countries, there is enough content.
I do not see a new Shield TV box as a competitor for the Switch, because the Switch is the Shield Box and tablet in one device.
Switch has premium Nintendo and console content, while Shield offers all the emolators for older games. I like them both, though
@DanteSolablood Tablets in general I find a bit pointless... functionality and power-wise they fall short of what a regular computer can do (and most people will already have a computer anyway), and portability-wise they fall short of smartphones, which can still provide the vast majority of the functions you'd need on the go, while being substantially cheaper... what little benefit you'd get from owning a tablet in addition to a computer and smartphone just doesn't seem like it's worth the additional cost to me.
@zip Compared to similar set-top boxes, sure, but they are not the only devices that can provide those services... for example, you could just as easily hook up a regular computer to your TV and get all of that and more.
@dres The same applies to Apple TV, etc.
@DragonEleven I agree! At one point tablets were more viable as they could have advantages such as increased power and battery but as smartphones have developed this advantage has vanished. Personally my reason for owning a tablet was to speed up my art & practice digital colouring...something the Nexus 7 turned out to be terrible at.
I think this is why Nvidia is trying to diversify their Shield range into gaming, television and other areas. If they can consolidate what is left of the tablet market, it will still make a nice little earner on top of their main business.
Well they have differing functionality...no big surprise there. It isn't like Nintendo is going to allow them to port games to the shield (although if you could stream from the switch with a shield that might be cool...overkill but cool).
@DragonEleven A PC is irrelevant here. A point of a set-top-box is to NOT use a PC.
well SOMEbody has to use the x2 for gaming.
@zip To be fair on DragonEleven most households will have a PC & most PCs over 3 years old can connect to a TV. A wireless mouse/keyboard can get you a similar experience to a "TV microconsole" for less money. Either that or buy a Chromecast & use your Android phone with any Bluetooth controller.
I like the idea of more hardware sharing architecture with the Switch. We've literally had titles pulled from Wii U because whatever it's doing is too weird to managably port. The only odd thing is how un-Nintendo the move would be.
@Ralizah I seriously questioned whether that controller was the actual thing or just a rendering in an N64 engine or something.
No, it makes no sense that it would be Switch hardware and not a Switch.
@Ralizah That controller design makes me despair
This will have the Pascal chip in it. Sure it will be more powerful too. I guessing cost was a factor for Nintendo to keep the specs down (if rumours are right).
More powerful than Switch no doubt reading some of the recent threads about the Switch being underclocked and using old chips etc. Switch appears to already be on the backfoot and now these on the horizon.
Interesting year 2017 will no doubt be.
The new "Nvidia Shield Android TV" will have Maxwell chips same as the Switch according to the news - just a little heads up.
Haha, interesting hearing people call the X1 an old chip, it wasn't announced until 2015 & the "new" X2 started development before it.
Ah great is Nvidea going to do what Microsoft did to SEGA? The Xbox's original controller was such a rip of the Dreamcast, they didn't even try to hide that fact.
Can i use that controller for shaving? Looks sharp.
No just kidding. I hope it is the partnership with Nintendo for the Dock. I will only buy the switch this time around and many games for it.
@kitsunetails8 Maybe Nvidia is actually the source of all these recent, deliciously despair-inducing Switch rumors, too. Upupupupupupu~
@KrakenSoup it does look like an early, unpolished 3D model for a controller design, doesn't it?
Well, take away the portability, take away Nintendo's games, take away all the 3rd party console games...
You're left with a device not even remotely intriguing
@A01 How is that a worst case scenario? I can think of much, much worse. Switch dies quicker than Wii U, Nintendo gives up on hardware and goes mobile games only. You don't think that's worse?
A smaller pocketable Switch is almost a given when something needs to replace the 3DS in a year or two.
The only questionable part is the more dedicated home console. That would depend on how this new direction all plays out (with PS4 Pro and Scorpio) in the console world.
What do you think is so bad about this scenario or am I misunderstanding you?
@BornInNorway81 The Shield TV is a fantastic device. It's game stream capabilities are phenomenal. I am currently playing Dragon Age Inquisition on it. So rather than sit at my computer desk, I play it on the Shield in my entertainment room like a console. Emulator machine, Kodi machine, my cable tv machine, Netflix, android games and ports, GeForce Now pc games, 4k video, voice activated searching, etc. Soon it will be my DVR machine. My kids play Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2 on game stream all the time. They can't sit in front of a computer and do that. It's a fantastic device.
If you're not streaming games from your PC, how do you buy and play games on these? Is it just what's on the Android Store and is compatible with controllers, or does it have its own store for buying proper games too? I recall seeing a video with Half Life playing on it.
@3MonthBeef I hear you but I don't think there is very much overlap here. For one, this thing isn't even portable. For another, like you suggest, the marketing will be so much stronger from Nintendo even without effort. Nvidia has zero exclusives and zero unique IP (as far as I know) to push along with the platform. It can only offer what the PS4 and XB1 already have. Compare that to Mario, Zelda and maybe even Pokemon.
Nvidia is, of course, okay with Nintendo success here, too. They make money on every Switch.
@GravyThief You get apps off of either the Google Play Store that has Android TV compatible apps or from the Nvidia Shield Hub app store which has quite a few games that will only run on the Shield Tv like Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Half Life 2, and Borderlands to name a few. You can also side load a lot of apps that will work fine on it
Far as I can see from the info available, this is just a remodeling of the original Shield TV. Call it a Shield Slim if you will, it is NOT an entirely new system, and as such also not a threat to the Switch.
@3MonthBeef You can also stream any of your own pc games as long as you have an Nvidia graphics card. You can stream your entire desktop to it, any game on your pc, Steam Big Picture mode. GeForce Now is their subscription streaming which is entirely different than game stream
@3MonthBeef @Grez thanks both. I think the streaming/subscription ecosystem from Nvidia is what threw me, I mixed that up with the streaming from a PC.
Not into the streaming/subscription model myself (for both games and music). I might check out what games can be bought outright as this system has always intrigued me.
The original NVIDIA Shield Android TV is not quite a non-portable forebear of the Nintendo Sandwitch, but it does use the Tegra X1 model T210 SoC that the Sandwitch is (probably) going to use. When I think about it, that may be the only really notable connection to make, since the NVIDIA Shield line in general is not exactly a hot sales performer.
The Google Pixel C, which came out at the end of 2015, also uses the Tegra X1. That may be a much closer comparison to make than the NVIDIA Shield Android TV:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/12/pixel-c-review-new-hardware-ignores-an-android-tablets-core-problem-software/
https://www.androidpit.com/google-pixel-c-review
At US$350 for only the (10.2 inch) tablet back in 2015, I think we can expect the Sandwitch to be sold at US$250- US$300, since it's mobile component will be smaller, and over a year will have passed since the Pixel C's release. We should keep in mind that the tablet market in general is beginning to greatly decline from the iPad's heyday. NVIDIA's bid with the Sandwitch may be one of their last ditch efforts to keep the tablet market relevant in some way outside of CAD and the like.
@aaronsullivan We'll have to see what the specs ultimately are. If the Sandwitch turns out to use a Tegra X1 model T210 (which is most likely), then yes, an upgraded model using the Tegra X2 (or even X3, if it's successful after enough time passes) will be in order at some point. If the Sandwitch turns out to surprise us all and use a Tegra X2, then there honestly wouldn't be any need for an upgrade for another 4-5 years, but it would likely make the system cost US$350 - US$400. Considering the X1 came out in the middle of 2015, and Nintendo traditionally wanting to hit a lower price bracket, I think the former is the much more likely outcome.
@A01 Except the Sandwitch isn't your average run-of-the-mill console. It's really more like a... "mobile console," if you will... And I'm sure you're aware of how quickly the mobile market updates itself. Nintendo has officially given up on the traditional console model; and honestly, after seeing how poorly they handled the Wii U, it was about time.
@PlywoodStick I wonder if in a couple years they will have a new dock that has an X2 or X3 SoC in it so that it could take over and keep up with more demanding games for console purposes. That would help keep costs down, you could just buy a new dock but keep the handheld.
@Grez I don't think the dock works that way. I could be wrong, since I'm not an expert on hardware, but I don't think chips and stuff like that really play a role. Here's a rumor about what the dock does. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/12/rumour_nintendo_switch_dock_helps_boost_performance_but_not_in_the_way_you_think
In any case, that seems like a bad idea to me. If the dock actually worked that way, it would have the system be super powerful when used as a console but gimpy and weak as a handheld. Kind of goes against what the Switch is meant to be.
Weird. But they'll probably profile these new Shield product way differently than the Switch.
@KirbyTheVampire @Grez Yeah, I doubt they're going to do power upgrades via a Dock. They will probably release new versions of the Switch tablet itself more often than usual Nintendo generations.
I wouldn't be surprised if the next Switch version would come after three years of the initial release. It would of course be fully compatible with the Switch 1 content, with more and more games requiring the newer hardware as time goes on, but much of the new content (especially First Party) being available on older iterations of the Switch too.
@KirbyTheVampire I know the initial dock doesn't work that way, it merely gives power and fan allowing the higher resolution. But was just a thought as a way to somewhat future proof the console portion. Not sure if it would even be possible
"Could this be the switch in disguise?"
No, because this will still have 3rd party support after 12 months.....
@Moshugan Seems like the smart thing to do. The Switch has a lot of potential. If it succeeds, hybrids could be a big deal in the future. I wonder where that leaves true handhelds? If they produced a mini Switch that was even easier to bring around with you than the one coming in March, I could see handhelds being pretty obsolete. Who would buy them when you could buy a handheld that also doubles as a console? Come to think of it, the same goes for regular consoles. After all, one day hardware will matter much less, and at that point why would you buy a console when you could get a console that doubles as a handheld?
@Clownshoes yet none of the franchises.
Win some, lose some, fool.
@Damo I heard the Saturn emulator was recently (more or less) perfected - very exciting! I will definitely be picking up the next generation to try out some of the fantastic exclusives home to the Saturn after drooling over them for so long.
@KirbyTheVampire I fully expect a handheld-only mini Switch with permanently attached controllers at some point. Or rather a honestly handheld device that just is part of the same ecosystem and is compatible with the same content.
The problem with multiple Switch family devices would be that it might get confusing as to which software is compatible with which device!
Depending on the price I would be interested in getting one got a madcatz mojo for some emulation and kodi and it's pretty cool, wanted to get a shield but then they stopped making them 😕
@MarcelRguez It better be indestructible and consume energy like an original 3DS.
Edit: feeds 3DS Cybervoost Proenergy bar
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