Following PlayStation Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, GeForce Now, Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, Samsung is also launching a cloud-based streaming platform.

The Korean company confirmed during the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2021 that they are entering a new business and will have to compete in a tough market with the competitors above and for the second time. Samsung first tried to make a mark in this field back in 2010 (OnLive was the best-known cloud solution back then, who remembers that?), but after a somewhat inevitable failure, Sony took over the South Korean remnants.

Their cloud platform will be available on Samsung TVs that also feature their operating system, Tizen, according to the SDC 2021 announcement. So, in principle, it won’t be as directly openly available as, say, Google Stadia or Xbox Cloud Gaming (which Microsoft ran for a long time under the name xCloud). Tizen is open-source and offers many developer tools so that the South Koreans will have at least some openness from one aspect.

Samsung has openly made it its goal to let us play the latest games without buying the latest consoles or expensive video cards. While this notion sounds good, the catch is that if the service is only available on the South Korean company’s televisions, limiting its accessibility and the platform’s maintenance costs that will have to be covered somewhere. The price of the products could be affected by the presence of the cloud service, not to mention the fact that rivals (Apple and Netflix could be included, and perhaps Nintendo could join in later…) are looking to increase accessibility.

We still have to wait for the official launch because it is too early to draw profound conclusions from Samsung’s announcement. We also don’t know when Samsung’s (second) cloud attempt will start.

Source: JVL