Upon its official unveiling several weeks ago, the PS5 Pro was met with backlash on account of its exorbitant $700 price tag. A key pain point for many is the absence of a disc drive on the refreshed next-gen system — now billed as an accessory sold separately alongside an optional vertical stand.
It’s clear that the landscape of gaming is changing. With its long track record of innovation in TVs and phones business, Samsung sees an industry ripe for the taking — an industry on the cusp of major alteration as physical video game discs begin to lose their steam as fast as DVDs in the early days of streaming.
But even now, we don’t quite have a set list of the best streaming services when it comes to gaming. The only picks among the best cloud gaming services that exist on the market right now are Xbox Game Pass, Amazon Luna, and Nvidia’s GeForce Now, as well as a smattering of additional lesser-known options. And even less of these exist on TVs, with Samsung being one of the few places to experience cloud gaming.
I recently got the chance to meet with Mike Lucero, head of product management for gaming at Samsung, to talk about the future of this endeavor and to see just how far Samsung is willing to go in the world of cloud gaming. It’s aiming for the stratosphere with an assortment of in-house and third-party games built for the TV as a platform.
In this new era, everyone’s a gamer to Samsung.
It’s all in the Gaming Hub
My first introduction to Samsung’s Gaming Hub came when I tested the Samsung QN900D QLED TV, an 8K monster of a display that we inevitably gave a perfect score. It’s here, in the Gaming Hub, where everything pertaining to the pastime exists, and Samsung is putting a ton of effort in building it out with a snappy UI, tons of categories, and even timely picks (like a slew of available Star Wars titles in line with the release of Star Wars Outlaws).
"Samsung Gaming Hub is transforming how players discover and play without having to deal with the barriers that come with dedicated hardware and closed ecosystems.”
— Mike Lucero, Samsung
In that same testing phase, I got to try out Samsung’s game controller, the Replay Wireless Controller, which adds further proof of its deep connection with gaming and where it sees itself in the space — and that's as a fellow player. Although my time with all of this was short in the initial tests of the QN900D, I did get to experience the Gaming Hub a bit further in my review of the Samsung Q80C QLED TV, and it showed me just how important cloud gaming is to Samsung, which was only further reinforced following my conversation with Mike Lucero.
With a title like head of product management for gaming at a company like Samsung — a firm that doesn’t exactly make video game consoles or have much of a role in the video game industry beyond maybe the best Samsung phones lineup — you’re left wondering what exactly Lucero’s role entails at the company. It’s written entirely in the Gaming Hub, a place that extends well beyond Samsung’s TVs, even though that's the best place to experience them.
“Since its launch in 2022 as the first smart TV platform for game streaming, Samsung Gaming Hub now provides access to more than 3,000 games from our world-class game streaming partners, including Xbox Game Pass, NVIDIA GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, and more," Lucero said. "Samsung Gaming Hub is transforming how players discover and play without having to deal with the barriers that come with dedicated hardware and closed ecosystems."
Samsung is going even further with its approach to gaming. Despite its close connections with heavy hitters like Microsoft’s Xbox and others, Samsung is adding fuel to the fire of on-TV experiences by making games exclusively for its TVs, like the newly-introduced trivia hit experience called The Six. Although simple in its approach and design, The Six is a testament to Samsung’s quality in innovation with fantastic music, Apple Watch Core-like daily checkups, and valuable learning experiences for the whole family to enjoy.
And you don't even need a controller — just a phone or your TV remote.
The best platform for gaming is the TV
Last December, I wrote about how your TV could one day replace your game console and, even on the heels of Sony’s PS5 Pro announcement, I still feel this is the case. In an email conversation back then, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, relayed optimism to me on the point of TVs being their own game console in the future, but added that cloud-based gaming is still leagues away from being as advantageous as playing on a conventional game system.
“So far, the silicon has always won, which means a fast computing device close to the user has a significant advantage over hardware in a data center,” Sweeney said at the time.
In Samsung's eyes, though, the buck doesn't just stop at cloud gaming. Its introduction of The Six in June was met with optimism and it's built entirely native on the TV. The Six isn't alone either, as Samsung worked with Return Entertainment to design a fighting/card battling experience in Rivals Arena, which has tons of flare and looks utterly gorgeous on Samsung displays.
"Gaming is a deeply personal form of entertainment; players want a say in how and what they play," Lucero told me. "We’re committed to providing our customers with new ways to experience gaming on their Samsung devices by introducing experiences that appeal to all gamers – from casual to core players. We want them to enjoy all their favorite games and discover new games instantly without having to worry about purchasing additional hardware."
Both The Six and Rivals Arena are just tiny pieces of an ever-growing ecosystem that Samsung is vying to explore more deeply. Of course, games are massive these days — just look at Call of Duty: Warzone's eye-watering 200-plus GB size as one meaty example. That's why Samsung's approach to drumming up smaller experiences with quality design is the key, especially when they can bring, akin to some of the best Nintendo Switch games, the whole family together.
A whole new era
As for the future, though, Samsung's got a lot cooking. It already has the largest selection of cloud-based experiences available exclusive on the best Samsung TVs and its new in-house games are only furthering a bespoke new concept that it alone is leading the charge in.
Lucero also notes that it doesn't just extend to the games themselves, but also "best-in-class features like the Gaming Hub Quick Panel to let players seamlessly make adjustments to their gaming experience: easily jump back into a game they were playing, change background music via Spotify, adjust picture quality, and even turn on AI Upscaling."
He adds, "Our Free Game Pilot Program with Blacknut, which provided immediate and free access to games, and our 'Designed by Samsung Gaming Hub' accessory program are further examples of our commitment and investment to providing more gaming options for our players."
"We are constantly working on adding more content to Gaming Hub. While we cannot announce future plans, you can be sure that we are developing Gaming Hub to be the best gaming product we can make."
— Mike Lucero, Samsung
It's also quite clear the absence here of two notable Japanese gaming brands when it comes to the cloud in particular: PlayStation and Nintendo. Given Samsung's commitment to being the best place to experience games on the TV, I was curious about its approach in this sector.
Nintendo has several cloud versions of Nintendo Switch games not to mention its Nintendo Online Expansion Pack that gives access to loads of classic games for fans to enjoy. Meanwhile, PlayStation rolled its online gaming service, PlayStation Now, into its PlayStation Plus subscriptions. It makes sense, I feel, to try and include these services too going forward, especially as its biggest rival in LG captures some of the market by recently adding a new cloud gaming service to its smart TVs.
"We are constantly working on adding more content to Gaming Hub," Lucero tells me. "While we cannot announce future plans, you can be sure that we are developing Gaming Hub to be the best gaming product we can make."
I've been writing about cloud gaming for years and was always fascinated by its potential, dating all the way back to 2020 when I wrote that cloud gaming will become the new norm. I'm still of the mind that it will be, but Samsung's new approach to building out experiences tied directly onto the display is proving just as fascinating and should be something major competitors from Sony to Hisense should start thinking about.
Who needs a PS5 Pro when you've got a Samsung S95D OLED TV? The Six and Rivals Arena are calling.
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