Low to no latency — I was given the opportunity to try out the new Xbox app experience in advance of its wide release. Lounging in the small sitting area of a NYC hotel room, a massive Samsung OLED smart TV in front of me, I fully expected some awkward silences waiting for games to load up.
But there weren’t any pauses. I loaded up Forza Horizon 5 first — a title I have little to no experience with. The title screen opened up somewhere around 15 seconds after I’d opened the game. The loading times between menus and gameplay were similarly short. The setup was using a wired internet connection, yes, but the speed — on a hotel’s internet connection nonetheless — was genuinely impressive.
Playing Forza (and subsequently Ori and the Will of the Wisps) proved to be just as speedy as those loading times. There simply was not any latency. This is often game-streaming’s downfall; more than a little latency and gameplay turns downright unenjoyable.
The Xbox representative I spoke with told me that, yes, latency was one of the biggest challenges they faced in bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming to smart TVs. Consoles are built to mitigate gaming latency; getting a television to do the same, all while pulling live gaming content from a remote server, is no easy feat.
I nearly forgot I wasn’t playing on a console as I dodged spikes and monsters in Ori. I did so well I received compliments on my gameplay. I don’t say that to brag but rather to illustrate just how effortless it was to stream the game right through a TV. (Okay, maybe I do say it to brag just a little bit.)
Only the beginning — Beginning June 30, Xbox Game Pass will be able to stream any cloud-ready title on 2022 Samsung smart TVs. There are over 100 titles already available for Cloud Gaming, including big hits like Halo Infinite, Mass Effect, and Hades. That streaming catalog will continue to expand. Fortnite is even available to stream without any subscription at all.
Samsung is already partnered with Nvidia’s GeForce Now and Google’s Stadia to bring those platforms’ respective catalogs to the Gaming Hub. Add Xbox to the mix and a Samsung smart TV is suddenly one of the most extensive gaming devices around.