Nvidia today announced that it will drop the price of its upcoming Shield portable gaming system from $349 to $299.

"We've heard from thousands of gamers that if the price was $299, we'd have a home run. So we're changing the price of Shield to $299," Nvidia said in a Thursday blog post.

Those who have pre-ordered the device, which is set to arrive on June 27, will be charged $299 when the Shield ships.

In examining the Shield during a recent hands on, PCMag's Sascha Segan found it to be an "interesting" device. "But with Tegra Zone games and Android-powered entertainment also available on a range of Android smartphones, I just don't see the additional $349 purchase happening here," he concluded.

Nvidia heard that call, and dropped the price - in part "to get Shield into the hands of as many gamers as possible," the company said. "That's because we think they'll have the same reaction to it as thousands of gamers already have: joy."

Source: PC Magazine