How Samsung gives gamers options beyond buying consoles | Mike Lucero

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Samsung Gaming Hub, the video game streaming platform accessible directly via Samsung Smart TVs, celebrated its first anniversary last week with the announcement of a new brand identity and continued expansion. I talked with Mike Lucero, head of product management for gaming at Samsung Electronics, about what the first year of the product has meant.

In our interview, he said the platform has grown rapidly in its first year, with monthly active users increasing thirteen-fold from July 2022 to May 2023 and players from nine territories able to access high-quality game streaming on over 21 million Samsung devices.

The platform now offers over 3,000 games through partner services, including triple-A titles like Halo Infinite, indie games and arcade classics. It kicked off with streaming partners such as Xbox, Nvidia GeForce Now and Utomik, and it has since added Amazon Luna, Antstream Arcade, and Blacknut as streaming partners. Samsung also announced its Samsung Game Portal last week to make it easy for gamers to buy gaming accessories at Samsung.com.

During the past year, Samsung showed up with its “Playing is believing” campaign at game events like Summer Game Fest. The platform’s seamless access to games without downloads or waiting has impressed creators and journalists who were initially skeptical about game streaming, with many asking “what’s next” for Samsung Gaming Hub. I played Halo Infinite on the hub as a streamed title, and it worked pretty well at the recent Summer Game Fest. We’ll see what it does for the Samsung gaming brand.

Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

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