No Man's Sky and The Witness now available on NVIDIA Shield

In case you missed it, today was the official launch of the new NVIDIA Shield Android TV set top box. Alongside the release, two independent games that got a lot of attention in 2016 have now made their way to NVIDIA Shield devices.

One of the games is No Man’s Sky, a sandbox space exploration and survival game from developer Hello Games. The game received a ton of pre-release hype for a couple of years before it officially launched in August 2016 for the PC and PlayStation 4. The hype came about because of the promise of a vast universe to explore, with each planet, and its life forms, to be unique thanks to the game’s procedural engine.

However, the launch ended up being a disaster. No Man’s Sky was extremely buggy when it was first released, and many of its promised features were only partially completed. A recent update to the game added many new features and improvements, but the damage was done. No Man’s Sky is now an example of a game that received tons of hype but fell well short of its high expectations.

In any case, the game is now available via GeForce Now for the NVIDIA Shield Android TV boxes, the Shield Portable and both Shield Tablets (original and K1) for $59.99. No Man’s Sky does require a controller and purchasing it from the Shield Store offers a Steam digital code that is needed to activate and play the game.

The other new NVIDIA Shield game is The Witness,  the latest game from Jonathan Blow, the indie game developer who previously released the acclaimed 2D scroller-puzzle game Braid. The Witness is also a puzzle game, but set in a full 3D world, where you explore a mysterious island and try to unlock its secrets. Unlike No Man’s Sky, The Witness got a ton of critical praise from the media, as well as solid sales, when it launched in January 2016 for the PC and PlayStation 4, and later for the Xbox One.

This game is only for NVIDIA Shield Android TV owners and is available to download and purchase from the Google Play Store for $19.99. The game does require the use of a controller, and the Shield TV box must have at least 3GB of free storage space.