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Samsung is apparently working on its own mobile gaming service
Great, another game launcher, just what we need.
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Even though Apple and Samsung use different operating systems on their smartphones, the tech giants are always competing for that top spot. With Apple releasing Apple Arcade, a subscription-based mobile gaming portal, a month ago, it was a fair bet that the South Korean company would be working on its own version.
According to trademark that Samsung filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office last week, that looks to be the case.
That trademark application references PlayGalaxy Link, which is described as a: “downloadable mobile game application software; providing online augmented reality games; gaming services, namely conducting online computer game tournaments; electronic games accessible through mobile devices.”
Image: LetsGoDigital
Samsung recently partnered with Hatch (a subsidiary of Rovio Entertainment, yes of Angry Birds fame) recently, to launch a new 5G-enabled cloud gaming service in South Korea. The PlayGalaxy Link branding seems to be for the Western market, as it’s only been trademarked in the US and Europe.
Could it be the same service, with a different mix of mobile games due to the locality change?
The South Korean partnership gives anyone who buys a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G three months free of the gaming service, as a sweetener. Maybe we’ll see a similar bundle when the Galaxy S10 5G arrives in the US, although there’s no mention of any gaming services on the existing pre-order pages.
Will Samsung’s mobile gaming service mirror that of Apple? The fruity offering brings a lot to the table, with over 100 new and exclusive games from big-name companies and studios like Annapurna Interactive, Cartoon Network, Konami, LEGO, SEGA, and more. Does Samsung have a similar stable of games in the pipeline, or is it going a different way?
Popular mobile multiplayer games like PUBG, Fortnite, and Clash of Clans all have one missing element to make them great – a unified friends list, as we see on platforms like Steam, so you can befriend once and then play together on any game in their library. It’d be cool if Samsung could pull this kind of storefront off, having to search for the same friend in every single multiplayer mobile game is a chore.
We’ve also seen early renders of a gaming smartphone from Samsung, which resembles the Galaxy Fold but with additional controls for gaming. With the issues around the Galaxy Fold’s release, will the gaming version ever see the light of day? Will Samsung pick another flagship phone to promote the PlayGalaxy Link service, as it did with the S9, which came with an exclusivity deal with the mobile version of Fortnite?
Whatever their plans, I just hope Samsung works out the kinks before releasing another flawed product onto the market.
What do you think? Interested in a gaming service from Samsung? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
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