nVidia Shield console brings Android into the gamer realm.

I have read a lot of criticism of the new nVidia Shield console this morning, but nothing I read was very concerning. It was mostly people comparing Shield to previous attempts at entering the console realm and immediately dismissing it.

What they missed was the fact that this Android console will have launch titles that appear on the current gen consoles (notably Borderlands Prequel). Not a dumbed down version, but the same version you would get on the PS4 or Xbox One. This means the console has the same capabilities as current gen consoles at a significant discount.

The $199 price tag sold everyone. Nintendo can't even hit that price point. But what is really going to make this succeed is the games on it. Nvidia has a close relationship with all of the big name game developers so when they release this console, you know they had some big names up on the stage. They hit some beautiful games from the FPS, RPG, and puzzle genres. Running Crysis 3 really put it over the top. Can it run Crysis? 3? Yes, and at 4k resolution! This was not a Grid stream, it was playing it straight off the device.

So does it have games? Yes and in abundance.

It is also running Android TV which means it has access to the Play Store and also their Shield Store (which looked a lot like the Play Store). This also opens it up to much hackery. Android TV can install APKs which opens it up to just about anything people want to install on it.

It has two USB 3.0 ports along with an SD Card expansion to allow virtually unlimited storage. I, personally, have a USB 3.0 500gb HDD just waiting to be hooked up to it. This is extremely important for this console because it is disk-less and will download all games to it. Current gen games can be greater than 10gb a piece easily so the stock 16gb will obviously not be enough.

In addition to that, it will also come with access to Grid. This is nVidia's version of cloud gaming and it looks great in theory. I should point out that I truly believe cloud gaming is the future of gaming. Instead of 1 teraflop of current gen console's power, Grid offers a platform with 5 teraflops. I cannot even think of a PC that can touch those speeds. The "PC Master Race" is dwarfed by Grid capabilities. The only problem is, it streams.

Grid is an amazing service that works flawlessly. The problem is the same cannot be said for my ISP. I already get throttled for using Netflix too much, streaming Grid games will only make it worse. When Google finally gets to my area and I can use them for an ISP, this will be perfect, but until then, it will remain a future dream.

One thing I found interesting is that almost every developer who stated they were porting their games to Grid (games like Batman Arkham Knight and other yet to be released games) they said they were also porting it to a downloadable game for the Shield also. So most of the upcoming games that will be on Grid will also be available for download via the Shield Store or Play Store.

The Android gaming revolution begins this May. Welcome to a new free and open gaming choice with no holds barred development. This riding on the heals of Unreal Engine 4 becoming a free Engine and Valve's Source 2, this year should bring some extremely cool things.

UPDATE: Notable features not mentioned in the presentation are that it is confirmed to have NVIDIA GameStream to stream your PC games to it. It also has an IR blaster to control your TV and Receiver.