[Xperia Play Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Fenrir007:
I actually think this may be good for the Xperia Play - but first, let me explain why I think the Shield is shooting itself on the foot and not a threat whatsoever to the Xplay.

The reason why so many people carry a Xperia Play around is due to the fact that it is a full fledged cellphone - a pretty good looking, non-geektastic one to boot (unlike, say, the old tacophone Ngage that I had - oh how many jokes I had to endure like "why are you talking to your gameboy?").You can make calls, read your e-mails, check facebook, do some emergency browsing (I say emergency because the experience is admitedly subpar due to the screen), see your feeds, read books (with some squinting... but it is possible and I am close to finishing the Horus Heresy series on it alone), take pics and watch/record videos. Not only that, but you can also play games with the attached gamepad - and the choice here is tremendous. Emulation of almost everything up to PSP, not to mention many high profile android games support the Xplay AND run perfectly on it (with some OC in some cases).

The Xperia Play had a very big drawbacks when it was released - the price was prohibitive for what it was. Nowadays, though, you can get one for peanuts, so that isn't a problem anymore. The only real drawback is the dated hardware, but even that is somewhat alleviated by our great devs who keep milking it for the best possible performance. Just look at some PSP games running perfectl on it! I thought this was a pipe dream back when people were saying it would happen one day... It feels great to be wrong!

So why is the Shield a good thing to the Xperia Play? It will prompt more devs to look into adding physical key support to their games - and since they will do it for the Shield, I imagine going the extra mile to make it compatible with other famous gamepads makes sense (like MOGA and Xperia Play support).

So why is the Nvidia Shield doomed to fail? First, it is too expensive. Second, the streaming sounds like Onlive all over again. If you are at home, why would you play squinting at a small screen with downgraded graphics and possibly some input lag when you most likely have access to a beast gaming PC (let's face it - whoever buys this is a hardcore gamer) with a huge, good quality screen and potentially better controls (mouse + kb) within an arms reach? Third, it really doesnt have that many advantages over a phone like the S4 + an attached gamepad (and soon Samsung will release their 360 clone attachment for it) - makes more sense to buy such hardware for your already existing phone that you got for cheap on a contract (instead of paying for a redundant version of something you already have). Lastly, the hardware is stagnant, while phone tech evolves at a staggering pace, driving existing prices lower and promoting sales within a year of release.

I think this is going to be a very niche gadget for those who compulsively collect gaming hardware, and nothing beyond that. Other people will ask themselves "if we have to carry a second device with out phones, why not carry a 3DS, PSP or PSVita instead?" or "if I'm going to play at home, why not go for my consoles or expensive PC instead?".