NVIDIA has revealed that SHIELD devices will be losing support for GameStream next year, a popular feature that allows SHIELD owners to stream games from their GeForce PCs to the streaming devices, which have been advertised by NVIDIA as having world-class streaming media performance, featuring support for 4K HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, Al upscaling, and more.
“Starting in mid-February, a planned update to the NVIDIA Games app will begin rolling out to SHIELD owners,” reads a support document shared by NVIDIA that was last updated on December 16, 2022. “With this update, the GameStream feature will no longer be available in app. SHIELD users can continue to use GameStream until that time.”
NVIDIA goes on to recommend Steam Link and/or its own GeForce NOW service to users who want to stream games from their PC to SHIELD devices.
The former is described as a free app that allows users to play their Steam games on phones, tablets, TVs, or other PCs, featuring the added benefit of touch control schemes that are optimized for hundreds of top titles.
Valve discontinued its Steam Link hardware in November 2015.
“GameStream gives you the power to access your favorite games from your GeForce GTX-powered PC on your SHIELD TV or SHIELD Tablet,” reads a description for the technology that can be found through the official User Guide posted on NVIDIA’s official SHIELD site. “Jump directly into Steam Big Picture mode from the Steam app on SHIELD. The redesigned NVIDIA GameStream technology makes the experience faster and smoother — all with amazing 60 FPS gaming at up to 4K HDR.”
SHIELD owners have reacted negatively to the news, with one highly upvoted user on r/NVIDIA exclaiming “WTF” and how GameStream was their primary reason for buying a SHIELD device and GeForce graphics card.
NVIDIA’s current lineup of SHIELD devices comprises the SHIELD TV and SHIELD TV Pro, the latter of which features an NVIDIA Tegra X1+ processor and 3 GB of RAM for $174.99.
The standard SHIELD TV costs $124.99 and features the same CPU, but in a smaller, tube-like design.