On the eve of its planned release date NVIDIA has just announced that it will delay the shipment of its SHIELD Android game console to “July” (from June 27) as it has found a mechanical issue. The SHIELD console will be delayed into July. “We’re grateful for all the enthusiasm that’s been expressed for SHIELD, our new portable gaming device,” NVIDIA writes on their blog. “And we’re eager to get it into your hands. But we won’t do that until it’s fully up to the exacting standards that NVIDIA’s known for.

“During our final QA process, we discovered a mechanical issue that relates to a 3rd party component,” an NVIDIA spokesperson explained. “We want every SHIELD to be perfect, so we have elected to shift the launch date to July. We’ll update you as soon as we have an exact date.”

To give you some background into the situation, I believe the “mechanical issue” was discovered late this last weekend. NVIDIA PR then had to scramble to reach out to every outlet (this one included) that had reviews scheduled for publication alongside the original June 27 release date. We’ve now been asked to hold our final critical evaluations until the July release date, but were still encouraged to write first impressions pieces (mine is on the way).

I pressed my NVIDIA rep to go into further detail regarding the mechanical issue reports Forbes, but the company is remaining tight-lipped. They’re usually extremely forthcoming, so I’m sure their reasoning is sound. It’s worth noting that I haven’t experienced any unusual or defective behavior in my review unit.

Certainly NVIDIA will lose some cash on promotions that need to be scrapped or altered, and the first batch of units off the assembly line. In the end, hopefully the adjusted retail price of $299 and a commitment to quality will ensure a healthy launch for the SHIELD in July. In my brief time with the device, it’s a high-quality piece of hardware that all gamers could be excited about.

Nvidia Shield gets delayed one day before launch