Samsung Gaming Hub Brings Xbox Cloud Gaming and More to Smart TVs

Samsung is rolling out a new Gaming Hub on its 2022 Smart TVs today, which provides access to the most popular game streaming services. Xbox Cloud Gaming, Google Stadia, NVIDIA GeForce Now, and Utomik are already available on this new Gaming Hub, and Amazon Luna is also coming soon.

Owners of 2022 Samsung Smart TVs can connect their existing Bluetooth headsets and controllers (including Microsoft’s Xbox Wireless Controller) to start playing cloud-enabled games. The Gaming Hub will also display game recommendations from the different game streaming services available on Samsung’s Smart TVs, and users will also be able to access YouTube, Twitch, Spotify, and other streaming services right from the Gaming Hub.

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In addition to recent Smart TVs from Samsung, this new Gaming Hub is also available on Samsung’s 2022 Smart Monitors running the company’s Tizen operating system. “Samsung’s latest lineups introduce faster decoding and optimized buffer control technology which reduces the input lag by more than an average of 30 percent compared to the previous models,” Samsung emphasized today.

Samsung wasn’t the first TV manufacturer to partner with a game streaming service as LG previously brought NVIDIA GeForce Now to its own smart TVs. However, this new Samsung Gaming Hub isn’t playing favorites, which is pretty nice. It’s still early days for cloud gaming services, but making games available on even more screens should really help to make game streaming technology become more mainstream.

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Conversation 8 comments

  • spraly

    Premium Member
    30 June, 2022 - 1:52 pm

    <p>I was on the fence between lg and Samsung for my next TV. Not anymore. This is a game changer.</p>

  • christianwilson

    Premium Member
    30 June, 2022 - 2:09 pm

    <p>Good to see this happening.</p><p><br></p><p>I just hope the experience is decent. I haven’t been happy with the performance and long term support of smart TV apps. </p>

  • Donte

    30 June, 2022 - 2:18 pm

    <p>I have not tried the Xbox cloud gaming in about 6 months. For most games it was still a lag fest. Forza is my test bed, as lag will kill it fast.</p>

    • christianwilson

      Premium Member
      30 June, 2022 - 2:36 pm

      <p>It’s much, much better. </p><p><br></p><p>I was playing Forza Horizon 5 about two weeks ago and it felt fine. I’m so used to playing it on the Series X that I did notice a slight delay in input but minimal. It didn’t affect my driving, and in hindsight, I realized I was routing through iCloud Private Relay which surely introduced some lag. </p>

    • Calibr21

      30 June, 2022 - 3:39 pm

      <p>What system did you try it on? I’ve found Apple devices pretty bad for cloud streaming. High display lag + bluetooth lag + forced safari seems to result in it subpar performance. So an iphone with a bluetooth controller streaming over wireless is pretty much the worst way to play unfortunately. </p><p><br></p><p>A directly connected tv with, according to Samsung, reduced display lag and input lag will likely result in a much better experience.</p>

  • brandonmills

    30 June, 2022 - 2:36 pm

    <p>Certain games I find xCloud fine for. Especially story heavy / RPGs. It’s a nice option for bedroom wall TVs with nothing hooked up to them.</p>

  • ebraiter

    30 June, 2022 - 3:39 pm

    <p>Any ideas if this will be back ported to older Samsung TVs.</p><p>Both of my Samsung TVs received updates within the past week or so. Didn’t see anything different.</p>

  • rmlounsbury

    Premium Member
    30 June, 2022 - 5:16 pm

    <p>I will absolutely get a Samsung panel next time I upgrade. If I can access my Xbox game library via xCloud then I don’t need a dedicated console. I never loved dropping $300+ every console cycle. </p><p><br></p><p>I’m 100% onboard with this. </p><p><br></p><p>I hope newer Samsung interfaces are faster thought. My current panel is like molasses moving around the menus. </p>

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