Samsung is in turn launching a cloud gaming service on its Galaxy smartphones and tablets. You will be able to play mobile titles without needing to download them. Plus, it’s free!
Cloud gaming has finally found its place in gamers’ daily lives, thanks to services like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PS Plus Premium, Nvidia GeForce New, Netflix Games and Amazon Luna. But another actor intends to have his share of the pie. This is Samsung which, after launching its own cloud gaming service in beta on its Galaxy devices in 2023, just made it available to everyone in the United States – but it should see a global deployment thereafter. It allows users to play Android games without the need to download them.
Samsung cloud gaming: play Android games without downloading
As a reminder, with cloud gaming, the device on which you play calculates nothing or almost nothing: it practically only serves to display the game images which are calculated remotely, by specialized servers, and sent in real time. Clearly, the device only serves as a screen and control device. All heavy processing, which requires powerful processors, particularly for graphics, is carried out remotely on the servers.
While most cloud gaming services, such as Xbox Cloud Gaming or Nvidia GeForce Now, seek to export PC and console games to mobile and TV, Samsung’s platform focuses exclusively on Android games. Concretely, it involves clicking on a game and launching it directly, without needing to download anything to your smartphone. A comfort that should particularly be felt by users who do not have a lot of storage or have a chip that lacks power. In addition, the service is completely free and is done through the Gaming HUB application.
Samsung cloud gaming: a model that appeals to publishers
This service allows Samsung to respond to a major challenge encountered by game publishers: acquiring players in an ecosystem where 80% of downloads are linked to advertising campaigns. While these are effective in attracting users’ attention, they eventually run into a blockage. Indeed, once they click on an ad, only 5% of them end up actually installing the game on their phone, often due to complex installation and permissions processes on app stores. With the cloud, they can launch a game in seconds, directly from the Galaxy Store, without downloading or configuration.
Samsung sees this as a real revolution which should significantly improve the performance of advertising campaigns. During the beta phase, the first-session click conversion rate reached 50%, while the number of Gaming HUB users increased by 149% in North America in one year. This is enough to attract publishers by the thousands!