Nvidia Slashes Price of Video Game Console

One day after announcing that it would begin more widely licensing its core designs, Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) today announced that it will cut the price for its Android-based video game console. The device, called Shield, was introduced in January and the company began taking orders last month at $349. That price dropped to $299 today, and is scheduled to start shipping next week.

The company said in a blog post that it will drop the price for existing pre-orders to the new price point. According to the blog post, "We've heard from thousands of gamers that if the price was $299, we'd have a home run."

Compared with the PS Vita, from Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE), the Shield's hardware is better and the number of games available for Android-based devices is growing. Sony's PlayStation 4, due later this year, is currently set to cost $349 and the PS Vita handheld is priced at $249.

Like virtually every other stock today, Nvidia's shares are down. Currently shares are trading down about 2% at $14.55, after posting a new 52-week high of $15.48 yesterday. The 52-week low is $11.15.

Filed under: Consumer Electronics Tagged: NVDA, SNE