NVIDIA this morning announced that Shield -- its handheld, Android-based gaming system -- will ship on July 31, a little more than a month late. Shield originally was to ship June 27, but an unspecified "mechanical issue" with a "third-party component" pushed the launch into July.
Shield, which is one of the first devices to use NVIDIA's new Tegra 4 system on a chip, is a mashup of console-style controller with a 5-inch touchscreen, running a relatively stock version of Android. It's mostly targeted toward hardcore gamers, but the move from $349 to $299 may open up that market somewhat.
Wrote NVIDIA in an e-mail to purchasers on Sunday:
We want to thank you for your patience and for sticking with us through the shipment delay of your SHIELD. We have great news to share with you - your SHIELD will ship on July 31st.Our goal has always been to ship the perfect product, so we made sure we submitted SHIELD to the most rigorous mechanical testing and quality assurance standards in the industry. We built SHIELD because we love playing games, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
For more, check out our NVIDIA Shield forums.
