NVIDIA’s TegraZone App Will Help You Put That GPU to Good Use

by Quentyn Kennemer on January 9th, 2011 at 1:30 pm

Following the string of Tegra 2 device announcements from the industry’s top manufacturers, NVIDIA’s announcing TegraZone – a game store for Android that will feature the best games optimized for the dual-core processor. It isn’t unlike any other app store you’d find, including OpenFeint’s – social networking integration, trailers, and more will be downloadable alongside games.

Developers who create games that require as much juice as Tegra 2 provides will be pleased knowing they won’t have to compete with crapware in the Android market, and they also won’t be held back by silly file size limitations.

We’re hearing there’ll be anywhere from 5 to 10 titles at launch, with more obviously in the pipeline, though no solid release date was given. “Coming Soon” is all they could give anyone, so let’s hope their version of soon doesn’t stretch far beyond Q1. [NVIDIA via AC]

  • http://www.apple.com Steve Jobs

    But the iPhone has better graphics and retina display

  • Meh

    But will it be available for the Nexus S? O.o

  • Bela

    This is pretty cool actually. Perhaps this will actually have me looking into the gpus more than, well, not at all. Android is sorely lacking in the 3D gaming department. It’s time they step up. I think this is a great way to do it. This will allow users (even the less than tech savvy ones) to know which phones are optimal for which sorts of tasks. Hopeully there is some branding involved (I’m sure there will be) to make it even easier.

  • Keller

    I’m soo happy Bela got her first Android and has learned to post…

  • austin

    @ steve jobs i died laughing XD

  • Ban

    To be honest this doesn’t look like great news. I mean yeah android needs more in the gaming department, but thats the thing, ANDROID not tegra 2 phones.
    If nvidia monopolies the 3d game section it could mean other just as capable (the ULP geforce gpu is only MAX 30% better than sgx540)or even more capable (quallcomm and those sexy 28nm cores and adreno 3xx gpu) would be needlessly left in the dust. I mean even the sammy orion is meant to be a beast. }
    Tegra 2 is a beast yes, but its over-hyped, and shouldn’t be an excuse for nvidia to mess around with androids “open” nature.

  • Jay

    I agree with ban. – google need to make 3d games for all andriod running phones. You Should be able to find invidia games on the andriod market period.

  • Dave

    It’s not like they are rewriting the OS. These are just going to be games that the Tegra can play well. If other GPUs are fast enough they can play the same games.

  • Ban

    @Dave But will this tegra zone thing be available for non tegra phones and or will the games be available from the market somehow?
    I know dungeon defends is.

  • Robbert

    I’m sure no sane developer would release his game exclusively in the Tegrazone.

  • Álmos

    Why would they exclude the majority of potential buyers? The only logical thing to do is to allow every smartphone user in, and shove a huge Nvidia logo in their face every time a game starts, to remind them what they should buy next time if they want to have better framerate :)

  • Ronald

    Nice more Nvidia only crap software..

    That only runs on Nvidia.

    Like Physx 3dvision and Cuda.

  • Lucian

    @Ban sorry but qualcomm left themselves in the dust with crapoy gpus.And dont give me the neocore or quadrant scores necause still suck when actually playing a better than average visuals game. Having HTC and Qualcomm dominate the high-end smartphone market is probably the biggest reason Android still doesn’t have quality games now. If anything you should be thanking Nvidia for pushing the GPU performance further and getting developers to make quality games for Android

  • PimpStrong

    Almos im with you.

  • Art

    @Steve Jobs
    iPhone 4 GPU is weak compares to these and some of these Tegra 2 phones will have high resolution too.

  • The_Omega_Man

    So Steve Jobs, which Dual Core Android phone will you be getting this year?

  • Nlsme

    @12

    It doesn’t really matter, they all blow the Iphone away.

  • SIGINT

    While that is all good and fine, I am more concerned with battery life, signal reception and call quality, over turning my phone into a PSP.

  • Bob

    I think this is what good about Android, NVIDIA can now shine if their chipset is great for games. You know 90 percent of all PCs run on intel, but very few consumers care about intel inside.

  • ben

    gta 4 graphics and physics and missions and all the cars and weapons and story :DDDD!!! omg that would be BEAST!!!

  • darky

    I totally agree with comment no.9

    Think this is a good development.
    Thinking from the 10 million Galaxy S sales I’m sure Nvidia’s own store will let other android mobiles get the games. Some just won’t run as well. The market will have to be downloaded from the Android Market anyways. Dungeon Defenders on mobiles like Nexus and Galaxy S runs fine.

  • John M

    Silly people if your Android phone is capable of playing those games you’ll be able to play them. The games won’t be Tegra exclusive…



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