Nvidia says Shield TV is here to stay, and a new model is still on the table

Nvidia Shield

• Nvidia confirms ongoing support and production for Shield TV devices
• No new Shield TV hardware planned yet, but future updates are possible
• Shield TV stands out for over 10 years of active software maintenance

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More than a decade after the Shield brand first appeared, Nvidia is making it clear that it is not ready to walk away from Shield TV just yet. Despite the absence of new hardware for several years, the company says support for existing devices is continuing, and the idea of a next-generation Shield TV has not been ruled out.

In an interview with Ars Technica, Andrew Bell from Nvidia spoke in detail about the origins, longevity, and future of the Shield TV lineup. The first Shield TV launched back in 2015, and while it has been more than five years since the last hardware refresh, software updates are still arriving. The most recent update rolled out as recently as November, reinforcing Nvidia’s claims of long-term support.

According to Bell, the Shield project began as an internal effort rather than a consumer-facing product. Nvidia employees wanted a high-quality, high-performance TV streaming device that did not tie them into the Apple ecosystem. That internal demand eventually gained traction at the top of the company, with CEO Jensen Huang encouraging the team to bring it to market. Bell even recalls Huang suggesting that Nvidia could support Shield devices for as long as the company exists.

That philosophy helps explain why even the first-generation Shield TV is still supported today. Very few consumer electronics products, particularly in the Android TV space, can claim over ten years of active software maintenance. In a market where streaming boxes are often abandoned after a few update cycles, Shield TV stands out as an exception.

Bell also confirmed that Nvidia is still manufacturing Shield TV units. Demand may not be massive, but it is consistent. He noted that every week, a steady number of new buyers continue to discover and purchase Shield TV devices. As a result, Nvidia has no intention of shutting down production or ending software updates in the foreseeable future.

The more intriguing part of the conversation revolves around what comes next. While Bell was careful not to promise anything concrete, he made it clear that Shield TV development has not stopped behind the scenes. Nvidia continues to experiment with new concepts in its labs, and if something genuinely exciting emerges, a new Shield TV could become reality.

At the moment, there are no firm plans for a Shield TV successor. The last hardware update arrived over five years ago, and Bell acknowledged that nothing is currently locked in. Still, he admitted that the idea of a new Shield comes up frequently inside the company and that he would personally love to see it happen.

If Nvidia does decide to launch a new model, Bell suggested it would focus on modern video technologies. Priorities would likely include AV1 decoding, HDR10+ support, improvements to Dolby Vision, and other updates aligned with current streaming standards. He also hinted that a future Shield TV remote could finally drop the much-criticised Netflix button. According to Bell, its inclusion in the current remote design was driven by Netflix’s strict certification requirements back in 2019.

For now, Shield TV remains a rare example of a long-lived streaming platform that continues to receive meaningful support long after its initial release. Whether or not new hardware ever materialises, Nvidia’s commitment to existing users appears genuine, and in today’s fast-moving hardware landscape, that alone is noteworthy.