Samsung / Microsoft
Can a television supplant your video game console ?
That ’s a question Samsung has mash with for over the preceding two year . It lead off with the reveal ofSamsung Gaming Hub , a ready to hand smart TV widget that brought several swarm cyclosis apps together . With it , anyone with a late Samsung TV could directly cloud current games from Amazon Luna , GeForce Now , and , crucially , Xbox Game Pass . Samsung is even doubling down this year with the introduction of undivided games that can be played with nothing more than a TV and earphone . There ’s a very real cosmos in which someone could not own a single console and still have approach to an enormous library of games .
Samsung / Microsoft
But how viable is that ? Can you really run a full gaming life history entirely through your TV ? After years of curiosity , I finally gave that a try for myself . I grease one’s palms a Samsung TV for my new dwelling office and promptly immersed myself in the Gaming Hub ecosystem . Though there ’s no opportunity it ’ll change my gaming apparatus long term , I ’m bulge out to see where the supererogatory tractability could weave into my number — even if it ’s not always the ideal direction to play .
Gaming on a TV
My experimentation would begin when I moved into a new railroad - fashion flat and converted a minute middle room into a base office staff . I make up one’s mind that I ’d want to move all of my play consoles into that room so it would be easier to jump over to them during the workday , lead an Xbox Series S on my living room TV as a stream app box . To complete my office setup , I ’d need a novel tv set . After kicking around some options , I adjudicate to go with a 55 - inch 2022 Samsung TV primarily so I could have access to Gaming Hub .
After getting it set up and jab around the app , I settle to take a week to endeavor to live in Samsung ’s gaming ecosystem . Rather than hooking up my consoles , I ’d alone do my base gaming through what was available through Gaming Hub ( I ’d still apply my Steam Deck and Switch for portable play as my TV could n’t replace those experiences ) . The first step of my journeying was well-situated enough : I ’d excavate out myAmazon Lunacontroller and couple it exclusively to my tv set . That would be the only spot of frame-up I ’d need to do .
Before actually using it , I ’d take a Hell stop into Gaming Hub ’s catalog ofphone - controlled games . While most game usable on the platform are tantamount to simple distraction you ’d find on an aeroplane , the bulk of my playtime there would be spent try out the more ambitiousRivals Arena . The pack of cards - building combat game is Samsung ’s first self-aggrandising “ exclusive ” meant to show off how the society is elevate the melodic theme of a free TV game .
It ’s not travel to win any awards . As two hulk characters with health bars come out on screen , my AI resister and I both select a card to play each bout . There are three primary colors of batting order , and they interact in a “ rock , newspaper , scissors hold ” fashion . While there ’s some strategy to build a pack of cards built around impose condition effects , it ’s mostly a fatuous game of chance . There ’s more effort here than I ’d expect from something like this , though . The 3D character models are detailed , even if they do n’t move too much . There are free loot box equivalents , pursuit to tick off , costume to unlock , and even multiplayer support . I do n’t feel compelled to play it beyond my singular first look , but I can palpate where a developer could make something engaging enough for the platform if Samsung is serious about pushing the idea further .
After messing with that , it was on to the next course . I ’d lumber into my Xbox Game Pass account and start firing up some games like I would on a console table . I ’d plunge into some go - tos to start , likeA Little to the Leftso I could do some day-by-day puzzles . Even with some occasional unhurriedness when using Gaming Hub ’s interface , I mostly receive it seamless to reboot up a game and have it immediately work with my Luna controller . So far , so good .
It ’s one thing to toy around with a smattering of game , though . To really get a feel for it , I ’d need to really play a full game through the service . As it turned out , horror gameStill Wakes the Deephad just been added to Xbox Game Pass as I was in the process of place up my video . Considering its sleek run time , it was the perfect game to try out ending - to - end over a few sessions . I never downloaded it to my Xbox ; I would only teem it .
If you ’re familiar with cloud gaming , you already know the caveat here . Personal internet amphetamine will also make or break the experience . I ’m place in New York with a solid ( though not top of the line of merchandise ) Verizon Fios connection . As such , I got a fairly unruffled experience over the four - hour runtime . I did hit the occasional stammer , but latent period find surprisingly blue . I was able to get through some tense chase scenes with ease , though concede it ’s a automatically simplified biz . The main deal - breaker I have churn down to picture calibre . It ’s a very dark secret plan , and those inscrutable Black do not translate well over swarm cyclosis . Splotchy shadows tempted me to just download it on my Series X and swop over , but I resist for the sake of the experimentation .
After assay out a few dissimilar game over a week , it became clear that this was n’t the way I ’d really want to play normally . That order , the different exercise compositor’s case started to become clear to me the longer the week went on . On one cheating evening , I wanted to hang out with my girlfriend in the living room while getting another half - hour ofStill Wakes the Deepin . To do that , I ’d fire up the Series S in that elbow room and continue cloud streaming it , picking up exactly where I ’d left off using the Gaming Hub in my federal agency .
That ’s where I see the potential power in what Samsung is going for . It ’s not a replacement for a real play equipment , but it ’s a utilitarian ecosystem for households with multiple TVs . I think about the layout of my parents ’ home base . They have their main TV in the aliveness room , one in the dining way surface area so they can have it on while feeding , and a small screen in their bedroom . In a frame-up like that , I can see where it would make sentience to connect some game consoles in the living room , but utilize someGaming Hub - enable TVsin other room for some supply flexibility . That cuts out the price of let to buy a 2nd bent of organisation .
My minuscule experiment model the viability of that option , the independent caveat being that cloud cyclosis still is n’t totally reliable . Even with fast net , you ’re fail to suffer some image timber and tidy sum with hiccough . But the next fourth dimension I have to download a 100 GB megagame that I only intend to tick out nonchalantly via Game Pass ? I might just give my Xbox ’s hard drive a break and let my TV do the wakeless lifting .
