Game streaming and cloud-based services have become more and more popular as companies try to distance themselves from hardware. Samsung has tried to break into the streaming industry with the PlayGalaxy Link PC-to-mobile service. Unfortunately, Samsung announced that PlayGalaxy will be discontinued on March 27th.
Samsung’s streaming service is fairly unknown to many gamers. The service has beenovershadowed by bigger services like Google Stadia. The PlayGalaxy service is so unknown that the announcement to discontinue services was made back on February 26th, but was so quiet that many did not realize that the announcement was made until today.
RELATED:Samsung Announces Invisible Keyboard at CES 2020
The official announcement made does not clarify the exact reason Samsung is shutting down the service. The announcement reads, “After many difficult discussions, PlayGalaxy Link will be ended on 21 June 2025 due to internal policy changes. Ending the service will allow our Development organization to more effectively focus its resources and add value to the next release of new product.” Internal policy changes could point to any sort of change within the company or the possibility that PlayGalaxy was not worth the time and resources to continue. Samsung is already engrained within the gaming industry, and perhaps will focus more on gaming hardware, as severalSamsung computer products were announcedearlier this year at CES 2020.
Samsung’s PlayGalaxy has only been available four months, which poses questions on why it is being ended so quickly. Some answers may lie in Samsung’s announcement of a partnership with Microsoft to work on Microsoft’s ownxCloud gaming service. The xCloud Project is still being tested and announcements will be made regarding the service on Mixer today and tomorrow. An Xbox spokesperson confirmed the partnership with Samsung saying, “Working with partners like Samsung is an important step in our Project xCloud journey and will help make game streaming more accessible for gamers. We look forward to sharing more later this year.” Samsung and Microsoft teaming up could produce many groundbreaking products to improve the world of gaming. Because cloud-based game streaming is so new, these companies teaming up to create a new gaming service will hopefully bring new ideas and improve access to video games.
Although Samsung has dropped out of the competition to create the best streaming service, the partnership with Microsoft on the xCloud may improve the xCloud’s chances to be successful. Google Stadia has struggled to compete with traditional consoles and the newNvidia GeForce NOW has launchedand looks to make a dent in the cloud-based market as well. Updates on the xCloud are expected to be announced today and tomorrow through Xbox’s Mixer stream.
