Nvidia is going to make its Shield gaming tablet owners a lot happier soon. The company is launching a series of updates to its tablet, including an upgrade to the newest version of Google’s Android operating system. These upgrades show that Nvidia is serious about expanding from graphics chips to providing whole gaming systems to its hardcore fans. Nvidia will also launch what it is calling the Green Box Bundle, which includes a 32-gigabyte Shield Tablet (LTE) with Android 5.0, a free version of Valve’s Half-Life 2 Episode One, and access to a bunch of cloud-based hardcore games over its cloud-based Nvidia Grid.
The Nvidia Shield Tablet isn’t for everyone, but it’s a pretty solid Android machine. It’s about to get even better in three distinct ways: Android 5.0 Lollipop, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, and a whole bunch of absolutely free streaming games. First off, if you’ve read anything we’ve said about Google’s new Lollipop, you know how big a deal it might be to have a solid tablet running the new OS. With the $300 Shield Tablet becoming one of the cheapest ways to get stock Lollipop ($100 cheaper than the iffy Nexus 9) that might be reason alone to perk up your ears. Second, it looks like game developers might be starting to warm to the potential of porting PC games to Nvidia’s Tegra K1 processor. Following Nvidia’s ports of Half-Life 2 and Portal, owners of the Shield Tablet will get exclusive access to Half-Life 2: Episode 1 as well. If you buy a new 32GB Shield Tablet, Nvidia will throw in all three Valve titles as a bonus.