NVIDIA Shield Invades The Living Room With Console Mode

Cancel your Steam Machines. Throw away your PS4 pre-order. Nvidia has rolled out a brand-spanking new update that turns the shield handheld into a home console, thanks to the all-new ‘Console Mode’.

Thanks to the new update, the Shield can now hook straight up to a television and livestream all of the Shield game libraries, the Google Play store, and even stream games directly from your PC. It does appear the Ouya has just turned into a paperweight…

Gamestreaming Allows You To Play In The Comfort Of Your Front Room

Pairing up a bluetooth controller with the Nvidia Shield and hooking it up to your TV with an HDMI cable will allow all the functionality that you’d expect from a home console, and has taken the Steam Machines on directly at their own game.

While the Nvidia Shield has held its stance as the only way to play your PC games on the move, the Shield GameStream lets the user take this one step further, by hooking up to any external display within range. Provided you’re all wrapped up in that Nvidia ecosystem already of course; the new update is only compatible with GeForce equipped PCs with GTX 650s and above, although presumably most Shield owners are already fighting in the green corner.

Currently the only available resolution is 720p, those wanting to get some glorious 1080p PC gaming streaming to their tellys will have to hold fire for a while, for the eventual release of an ethernet to micro-USB adaptor.

The GameStream service from Nvidia currently supports over fifty games, including recent big-hitters such as Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Batman: Arkham Origins.