The NVidia Shield was supposed to debut tomorrow, with a lower price of $300 and to what NVidia clearly hopes will be massive acclaim and sales. Apparently, though, it’s not quite ready yet, and for a baffling reason.
Specifically, that it’s busted. Or at least a mechanical component is.
But we won’t do that until it’s fully up to the exacting standards that NVIDIA’s known for. And some final quality-assurance testing has just turned up a mechanical issue that we’re not happy with…The issue relates to a third-party mechanical component, and we’re working around the clock with the supplier to get it up to our expectations.
That is… worrying. It’s literally a day from launch, and you’re still doing technical QA tests on the thing? How many of these will be repaired?
Building a console, even one that’s essentially just a demo for the Tegra 4, is a complicated process, of course. And it’s also something more ambitious than NVidia has ever attempted: As we all know, they’re better known for their graphics cards than their fully-integrated gaming solutions. NVidia is bidding not just to tackle smartphones but also Nintendo with a “hard-core” mobile platform.
We’ll likely get a chance to bounce a few things off the Shield next month. But for now, we’ll just have to wait. And speculate about which part stunk. Was it the triggers? We bet it was the triggers.