NVIDIA Announces SHIELD Release Date and New Lower Price

NVIDIA’s new portable gaming device SHIELD is going to be released June 27 with a (now lower) price of $299. NVIDIA is cutting off fifty bucks to meet that exact price. And with that announcement also comes a release date – June 27th. SHIELD will release in one week at the new price of $299. Those who have already pre-ordered the device at the original price will see an automatic reduction, so no worries there.

The company joined Microsoft this week in making a significant change between the original unveiling of its new videogame device and the launch in order to make it more attractive to consumers. Nvidia is best known for making chips and circuit boards that help computers and videogame consoles generate visual effects. Over the years, the company has expanded into making chips for mobile devices and first announced its Project Shield effort in January. The console, which is available June 27, is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 4 chip and features a five-inch, high-definition multitouch display, speakers, Wi-Fi and the Jelly Bean flavor of Android.

It also has 16 gigabytes of memory, GPS, Bluetooth, HDMI output, microSD storage slot and a headphone jack. “We’ve heard from thousands of gamers that if the price was $299, we’d have a home run,” said Jason Paul, product line manager of GeForce GPUs in a blog post Thursday. Those who pre-ordered the Shield will be charged the new, lower price when the product ships. Microsoft, meanwhile, said Wednesday it would reverse some unpopular policies it recently announced for its coming Xbox One videogame console. The company said it would no longer require its Xbox to connect to the Internet each day, nor would it restrict how its videogame discs are traded, resold or rented.