People will be able to play Xbox Game Pass games over a cloud connection on a 2022 Samsung Smart TV.
Microsoft
Microsoft Xbox One is releasing an Xbox app for smart TVs that will enable consumers to stream Xbox video games even if they don’t own a console.
Microsoft said on Thursday that it will first bring the app to Samsung’s 2022 smart TVs and then expand distribution to other manufacturers. After a 92% increase in Xbox hardware revenue last year, it’s a bold bet for Microsoft. The company said that the app will be available in 27 countries from June 30.
The move indicates that Microsoft is focused on taking revenue from gaming content and services, as opposed to consoles alone, where the company lags behind Nintendo and Sony. Microsoft’s biggest splash in gaming came earlier this year, when the company announced plans game publisher to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.
Gaming is Microsoft’s fourth largest flagship product category, and the company aims to attract more users to its Game Pass subscription service, which costs $10 a month and includes people playing on PCs and streaming via the cloud. option is included.
Microsoft. Hardware business picks up pace in 2020 after free its Xbox Series X and S consoles, and as such people spent more time playing games while offices and schools were closed covid pandemic, But component supply constraints and recent lockdowns in China have hurt Microsoft’s ability to produce new consoles.
“We’ve taken share globally for two consecutive quarters, and we are the market leader this quarter among next-generation consoles in the United States, Canada, the UK and Western Europe,” said the Microsoft CEO. Satya Nadella told analysts on a conference call in April.
But overall the picture is not so rosy. London-based researcher Ampere Analysis Estimated That Microsoft sold 7.7 million Xbox Series S and X consoles in 2021, while Sony sold 12.5 million PlayStation 5 systems and Nintendo sold 24.3 million Switches.
Gamers will be able to run Xbox apps with Sony’s Bluetooth-connected DualSense controllers, as well as Microsoft’s wireless Xbox controllers.
In opening up gaming from consoles, Microsoft is going where gamers are playing. This means catering for mobile devices running operating systems Apple either Google, More than 25 million Game Pass customers can stream games from Microsoft’s data centers on those devices.
Microsoft a year ago Told The Xbox division was developing streaming devices for cloud gaming. The company will not require gamers to connect a special device to a Samsung TV in order to stream games through the Xbox app.
“We have decided to move away from the current iteration of the streaming device called the Keystone,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC in an email. “We will take our learnings and refocus our efforts on a new approach that will allow us to deliver Xbox cloud gaming to more players around the world in the future.”
According to data from Omdia, the technology research subsidiary of Informa Tech, Samsung leads the smart TV market with a 21.3% share.
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