At Gamescom 2023, Samsung announced that the cloud gaming apps will launch on 2020 Samsung TVs later this year. This continues the positive trend of Samsung bringing cloud gaming to more devices; model year 2021 TVs received support last fall.
The cloud gaming experience coming to 2020 Samsung TVs isn’t quite the same as Samsung’s Gaming Hub software, available on TVs from 2022 onward. Gaming Hub lets you stream games directly to your TV without needing a console or streaming stick. Alongside game streaming services, apps like Spotify and YouTube are included so you can quickly hop between gaming, music, and videos. The service uses AI upscaling to support Samsung’s 4K and 8K TV models for games without native 4K or 8K support. TVs from 2020 won’t be getting those extra features, but they’ll have access to cloud services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and Amazon Luna.
Owners of 2020 Samsung TVs won’t miss out on too many features, though. Samsung claims that 90% of Bluetooth controllers are compatible (somost of our favorite controllers) with its TV cloud gaming experience, and virtual controllers are also compatible.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a 2023 gaming announcement without mention of Bethesda’s upcoming sci-fi RPG, Starfield. Starfield will launch on Xbox Game Pass on September 6th, and thanks to the streaming app’s inclusion on Samsung TVs, owners of any 2021 or later model will be able to play on launch day. Unfortunately, the 2020 models won’t get cloud gaming apps before the game’s launch.
The expansion of built-in cloud gaming to older generations of Samsung TVs is excellent news. While we hope that Samsung will support cloud gaming for older models, older hardware makes optimizing streaming much harder. Still, support for 2020 TVs is more than we would expect.
