Nvidia Shield OS goes open-source

Nvidia's Shield already offers the ability to play Android games and stream games from your PC, but Nvidia's also adding the ability to hack right into your device.

Ozzie Mejia

August 7, 2013 1:00 PM

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Nvidia's Shield handheld released a week ago, albeit to little fanfare. While it's fully capable of playing Android games and streaming PC titles, Nvidia is looking to add another carrot for would-be customers: the ability to hack into the device.

An official blog post reveals that the OS has been made "open-source," which modders can use to customize the handheld's entire operating system. Modders can modify and create custom ROMs to their heart's content, though they do run the risk of voiding their warranty in the process.

Of course, there's always the fear of completely breaking this $299 piece of hardware. Fortunately, Nvidia will offer a binary recovery image that can be used to restore the Shield to its stock configuration.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?