Xbox Game Pass for Samsung Launches on Smart TVs
Xbox Game Pass is a service that lets you play a large number of video games without having to buy a console. It's only been around since 2015, and it has grown to be one of the most popular gaming services of all time.
It has a pretty big library, and it's available in 27 countries so far. The service costs $15/month or $70/year for Ultimate membership.
Now, it's launching on Samsung Smart TVs as an app so you can stream games to your television. That's great news for fans of Microsoft's Xbox console, which has been gaining in popularity over the years.
You can access the Xbox app on select 2022 Samsung smart TVs and its new smart monitors, as well as on compatible iOS and Android devices. The app will also work with a variety of gaming controllers, including the PlayStation Move and Nintendo Switch.
Using the Xbox app on Samsung is pretty straightforward. There's a gaming hub that displays all the apps available for streaming, and it's pretty easy to find what you want.
The Gaming Hub itself seems a bit curated, with the ability to filter by genre and see what's popular right now. It's not as deep or feature-rich as the Samsung App Store, but it should serve as an entry point into gaming for users who don't already own a console.
This is a nice step forward for Xbox, but it's not quite as good as its competitors. The latency is a problem, and the visual quality of some games lags behind other cloud gaming services like Stadia and NVIDIA GeForce Now.