Samsung has presented at CES 2022 a new range of televisions that, among other things, allow you to play top-level video games without the need to have a console in your living room. The key, such as You're probably suspecting, it's the integration of services like Google Stadia, Nvidia's GeForce Now, and Utomik.
They all coexist in what the brand has called “Samsung Gaming Hub”. The funny thing, however, is that the consoles that you have connected via HDMI will also live in that same place. Samsung, in fact, ensures that its TVs will allow the controls to be passthrough. That is to say: you will be able to enjoy both the games from the cloud and those you have on your console with the same control remote, without the need to acquire additional controls or waste several minutes linking them to one or another device. The brand has also confirmed to The Verge that Xbox and PlayStation controllers will be compatible with this passthrough.
The South Korean company, at the moment, has not provided details on the quality at which the games from Google Stadia or GeForce Now will be streaming. Nor has it commented on the absence of Xbox Cloud Gaming , Microsoft's platform to play in the cloud. A notorious lack considering the close relationship that Microsoft and Samsung have maintained for years – the Galaxy Note 20 was one of the first devices to be compatible with xCloud, for example -.
Another of the unknowns is if these capabilities will be expanded to older Samsung models or, on the contrary, will be exclusive to the new generation. “We are starting with the 2022 models and we are working on making them Gaming Hub is available to even more Samsung consumers, “said Mike Lucero, company spokesman.
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Cloud Gaming is making its way, and Samsung wants to be part of the
The world of videogames, like other sectors, is going through a process of multiple transformation. On the one hand, subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass, whose mechanics are similar to that of Netflix, are only gaining followers. And, on the other hand, the incessant advance of cloud gaming also aims to revolutionize the way we consume (and conceive of) this industry.
Samsung is not a major player in this industry, but its products do act as a gateway to them (televisions, computers, mobile phones, etc.). The launch of this Gaming Hub may seem somewhat minor, but it is an important showcase for all these cloud gaming services that are trying to break through in a world dominated by physical consoles and gaming PCs.
Gaming Hub also further reduces the access barrier to these services, because, thanks to it, it is not necessary to purchase any device other than a remote control to start using these cloud gaming services.
