Samsung has just announced that its TVs in the 2021 range will receive a firmware update (it is in the process of being rolled out) to support services of cloud gaming. In this way, it becomes possible to play video games without adding anything to the television… apart from a controller and a subscription.
The Gaming Hub (less integrated)
The monitoring of television sets is still just as limited among manufacturers: the software is less integrated than the Gaming Hub, launched for TVs in the 2022 lineup. Available services include Xbox Cloud Gaming (accessible in beta with Microsoft’s Game Pass), Amazon’s Luna service (US-only) and GeForce Now from Nvidia. The three main services are quite different: Microsoft offers games in a monthly subscription, Amazon is partly integrated into Prime (and offers more games with a subscription) and Nvidia requires you to buy your games to enjoy them on equipped servers. powerful graphics cards. A few other services (Utomik, Blacknut in 2023) are in the game, the main one missing being PlayStation Now.
A wide range of compatible controllers
Samsung announces that Xbox controllers (360, One, Series) et de PlayStation (DualShock 4, DualSense) are compatible, as well as some Logitech, Nvidia or Amazon models. Overall, USB controllers should work, as will most Bluetooth controllers.
If the idea seems good at first, you obviously need a compatible TV (the list is available on the sitethe recent televisions offered par Free are inside). The main question remains the durability of the service: manufacturers are notoriously known for very quickly abandoning OSes and applications on their connected products. PlayStation Now, one of the first video game streaming services, was for example launched on Samsung televisions in 2015 and abandoned in 2017 (by Sony directly).