Nvidia Project Shield launch delayed till July due to 'mechanical issue'

NVIDIA has announced that the launch of the handheld gaming device, Shield, will be delayed. This comes as a setback in the chipmaker’s bid to use its appeal with personal computer gamers to challenge console makers like Sony and Microsoft. Shield will be NIVIDA’s first addition to the the list of handheld gaming devices, a market dominated by Sony.

On Wednesday, a day before the scheduled launch, NVIDIA said it had discovered a “mechanical issue” in Shield, which lets users play Android and PC games using either the built-in screen or on their TVs. According to the announcement, the product is expected to be shipped in July.

NVIDIA’s graphics chips are well-known to enthusiasts in their 20s who deck out desktop computers with high-end components to get the best out of first-person shooters and other games.

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Nvidia’s Project SHIELD plays both Android and PC games

The Santa Clara, California based company hopes some of those customers will also be drawn to Shield, which uses NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 mobile chip, has a pop-up Retina-class display, and runs the same games as those on Android tablets and smartphones. The portable device also shows movies, plays music, stores e-books, and can be used to surf the Web.

As PC sales suffer from the growing popularity of tablets, NVIDIA has staked its future on using its PC graphics expertise to make high-performance processors for mobile devices. Last week NVIDIA had cut the price of the Shield to $299 (RS 18,126) from $349.

Reuters