Samsung to reportedly add cloud gaming service to Galaxy phones

Samsung is gearing up to potentially launch its cloud gaming service at the upcoming Samsung Developer Conference 2023, scheduled for October 5 in San Francisco. This service, primarily aimed at mobile gamers, has been undergoing testing in North America on Galaxy devices.

According to a recent report from Korea Economic Daily, Samsung is on the hunt for new revenue streams following a period of sluggish growth in global mobile phone sales. While the report mentions that Samsung is in discussions with global game developers to bring popular titles to its platform, it doesn’t specify which games will be on offer.

While the core service may be free, users may need to pay publishers to access the latest games. Notably, this service will operate independently of Google Play, meaning that game developers won’t have to part with service fees, which can be as high as 30% of user payments. It seems that this upcoming cloud game streaming service will be accessible through Samsung’s Game Launcher and will be exclusively available on Galaxy devices.

Samsung has previously tested its cloud game streaming service in Canada, where it received positive feedback, particularly from users who appreciate not having to invest in dedicated gaming consoles like PlayStation or Xbox. An industry source highlighted that providing games in real-time through smartphones is likely to attract more users, especially those interested in advertised titles who were deterred by the hassle of downloading them.

Earlier this year, the company introduced ‘Samsung Gaming Hub,’ a cloud gaming platform for smart TV and smart monitor users. While this hub aggregates other game streaming services such as Nvidia’s GeForce Now and Amazon Luna, Game Launcher appears to be a standalone offering designed specifically for Samsung Galaxy devices.

Samsung’s move into the cloud game streaming sector may be driven by a slowdown in smartphone sales, with market analysts from Counterpoint Research forecasting a potential 6% decline in phone shipments to 1.15 billion units compared to the previous year.