The platform will run on the company’s custom Linux based operating system called Tizen.

Samsung has become the latest tech giant to announce a cloud gaming platform, joining already exiting platforms from Sony, Nvidia, Microsoft and Google. The announcement came at Samsung’s 2021 Developers Conference.

The new platform will run on the company’s custom Linux based operating system called Tizen. The OS powers over 200 million Samsung devices worldwide, the majority of which are smart TVs.

“To diversify your game selection on Samsung Smart TVs, we are developing a new Cloud Game Platform,” Yongjae Kim, Senior Vice President of Visual Display Software R&D at Samsung, said during the keynote. “This means that soon you will be able to enjoy games without purchasing high-end hardware, and developers can easily apply Samsung Smart TV’s seamless, immersive experience to new games.”

However, apart from the announcement the company hasn’t provided any more details about the platform including what games will be available through the platform.

The company did emphasise that the service will provide an alternative to “high-end hardware”, therefore it could be similar to what Google is offering through its Stadia game streaming service.

Although Samsung may seem to be late to the game streaming arena, it was actually one of the first companies that dabbled with game streaming. In 2010, the company partnered with a game streaming start-up called Gaikai to offer games to its High-end TVs, which was very promising. However, Gaikai was later acquired by Sony, thereby forcing Samsung to abandon the service.

Eleven years later, Samsung will have stiffer competition from at least half a dozen other tech companies. Despite the technology being viable, game streaming is still in its early stages and is yet to be widely popular.

Limited availability of high-speed internet connections across the world seems to be the major disadvantage experienced by game streaming services. Something which Google has had to learn the hard way with its Stadia platform. After a much-hyped launch, Stadia failed to live up to expectations, while suffering various technical issues.