In this installment, Samsung Newsroom introduces how to enjoy home gaming with the Samsung Gaming Hub. The Samsung Gaming Hub provides fun gaming experiences for all types of gamers, from aspiring gamers who have to buy new gear to play games when starting out to avid gamers who want to play all sorts of games, including console games and downloadable games.

According to a report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in 2021, there are an estimated 214 million gamers in the U.S. alone, with 75 percent of households having at least one person who plays games. As a result, during the pandemic, gaming became a fun group activity, particularly for those looking to connect with others.

As home gaming continues to become a more popular form of home entertainment, Samsung Electronics is providing new gaming experiences to consumers. Samsung Newsroom introduces the way users can enjoy a more realistic, immersive home gaming experience with Samsung Smart TVs.

Take the First Step Towards Unfettered Home Gaming With Samsung Gaming Hub

The biggest hurdle for many who wish to start at-home gaming is the cost and inconvenience of buying and setting up gaming equipment. Many consoles carry console-exclusive game titles that are only available on one platform. In order to play different games, users have to buy multiple different consoles.

PC games come with a set of obstacles as well. Gamers need to have all the necessary accessories and computer parts, such as a CPU, graphics card and monitor, in order to have a smooth gaming experience. Furthermore, gamers who purchase downloadable games need to ensure they have ample storage space available for the new games to be installed, causing them to delete older games to clear up space on their PC.

Now, gamers can have a complete home gaming experience with Samsung Gaming Hub without having to worry about hardware requirements.

No gaming PC, console or additional gaming gear is needed; all you need is a controller to enjoy gaming on a Samsung Smart TV. Moreover, users don’t need to worry about storage space for their games either. Just like watching a TV series or a movie on a streaming platform, all you need to do to start playing is simply select a game title.

On Samsung Gaming Hub, users can access games from various industry-leading partners, including NVIDIA GeForce Now, Google Stadia and Utomik. Additionally, Gaming Hub supports Xbox Game Pass, making it the world’s first Smart TV platform to include the Xbox app. Through this partnership, Samsung Gaming Hub users are now able to stream hundreds of high-quality games including blockbuster titles. Moreover, they can play new games on day one of release from Xbox Games Studios and enjoy iconic franchise games from Bethesda Softworks and more, all without having to buy a console.

Users can also continue playing a game on their tablet or smartphone after they have begun playing it on a Smart TV. By logging in using a cloud service, all saved files from a TV, tablet or smartphone are linked together. This allows users to cross-play games from anywhere in their home regardless of which device they use.¹

From Taking an Online Trip to Learning How To Code: A Customized Home Gaming Experience

While winning games is fun, the act of playing a game itself can also be enjoyable. In addition to its collection of popular games, Samsung Gaming Hub offers educational games that are both entertaining and visually captivating.

For those who want to take a spontaneous trip somewhere, take a trip to anywhere in the world with Flight Simulator. Flight Simulator is a pilot simulation game that has been loved by many since it was launched in 1982. The game presents users with realistic visuals and detailed background scenery, such as sunsets and city lights. The game also gives users an extremely realistic flying experience, similar to actually flying a plane.

For families that enjoy playing games with their kids, keep the fun going with Minecraft. Minecraft is a game in which players freely create their own spaces through mining, farming and hunting in a world made of square blocks. Minecraft: Education Edition is used in classrooms around the world to teach a wide range of subjects including the basics of programming, such as coding and design. With an in-game tutorial, many walkthroughs and online guides available, those who aren’t familiar with playing games can easily learn to play Minecraft. For more family fun, the action-adventure game Minecraft Dungeons enables players to brave the dungeons alone or join up to three other players to battle monsters together and gather treasure in an epic quest.

Your Own Playground Made Complete With Samsung Neo QLED

One of the most important pieces of equipment for home gaming is the display. The display not only affects how immersive a game is but also the outcome of the game as well.

The Samsung Neo QLED presents the world inside a game with the best picture quality. With 100% color volume and improved, detailed black levels, users can appreciate the beautiful high-resolution graphics and find out where enemies are hiding in the dark.

The Neo QLED is equipped with various features that make gaming even more exciting. Specifically, it comes with Motion Xcelerator Turbo Pro technology, which provides crisp gameplay motion in 4K resolution at 144Hz, and FreeSync Premium Pro, which minimizes input latency, lag and stutter on screen. Thanks to these features, gamers can play CPU-intensive games smoothly and enjoy vivid, life-like graphics. From first-person shooter (FPS) games that require fast response times to racing games with fast switches between different screens, the Neo QLED gives gamers an upgraded and immersive gaming experience across all genres.

The Neo QLED also provides enhanced display aspect ratios of 21:9 and 32:9, allowing gamers to play on a larger screen rather than on gaming monitors only. The Neo QLED is the first of its kind in the industry to offer Ultrawide GameView. Ultrawide GameView captures game angles that weren’t available with a display aspect ratio of 16:9, allowing users to play games without any blind spots on screen. The Neo QLED also supports Multi View, a feature that allows users to play two different videos simultaneously. With Multi View, users can play a game while referring to a walkthrough at the same time.

Enjoy an upgraded sound experience with the Neo QLED. The Neo QLED comes with Moving Sound Pro+ (OTS Pro+) technology, technology that matches the direction and movement of an object within a video to the sound. By creating multi-dimensional sound, users feel as if they are inside the game itself.

Home entertainment is loved by many because it is the most convenient way to enjoy fun activities from the comfort of one’s home. The next era of home gaming has begun, an era where anyone can play video games as easily as they can watch TV from their homes. A Samsung Smart TV is all that’s needed to enjoy playing games comfortably. Jump into the immersive world of home gaming with Samsung Smart TVs.

¹ Requires Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. Different for each game.

Powered by the Tizen OS, Samsung Electronics’ TV lineup provides users with a central hub for seamless streaming experiences. Along with Samsung’s cutting-edge picture quality, state-of-the-art sound and user-friendly OS, the company’s partnerships with leading content providers such as HBO are bringing users’ at-home streaming experiences to the next level.

In order to learn more, Samsung Newsroom sat down with Jennifer Mirgorod, Head of Partner Management and Marketing for WarnerMedia, to hear about the state of streaming, the future of the industry and how HBO’s partnership with Samsung is bringing users a truly premium experience.

Q: Please introduce yourself and your role at WarnerMedia.

A: As head of partnership management and partner marketing, I’m responsible for the distribution and marketing of WarnerMedia’s streaming services including HBO Max, its transactional video business and the linear television networks. I lead the team managing our multichannel video programming distributor partners in North America as well as our global platform partnerships, including with Samsung.

Q: Streaming services have seen massive growth over the last year. What are some notable trends the industry has seen over the past year?

A: Since my career in media began more than 25 years ago, I’ve witnessed the entirety of the streaming industry’s lifespan. We’ve seen massive increase in its popularity over the years and the global over-the-top services market size is projected to reach $86.8 billion by 2026.¹

As more streaming platforms emerge, content is so critically important to any platform. This trend, then, has been of rising importance for ensuring that the most iconic titles – from Warner Bros. and across our entire portfolio – live on HBO Max. The relative scarcity of premium content in our industry has made owning franchises like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and the DC Universe, among others, has been an incredibly powerful differentiator for WarnerMedia.

Q: With more consumers “cord cutting” and moving to OTT services, how do you see the market for premium content playing out over the next decade?

A: The past few years have been described as the era of “peak TV”, with hundreds of new television series being released each year, and one thing has remained clear: consumers crave premium content. It’s premium stories that make their way into the zeitgeist and resonate with large audiences, regardless of the platform on which they premiere. HBO has long been the home for exactly that type of content and, with HBO Max, we fully expect to build on that.

Q: What changes has HBO made to its platform to promote growth and provide subscribers new experiences?

A: There are quite a few things we’ve done both to the product itself as well as our approach to provide the best possible experience to our customers.

Throughout HBO Max’s first year, our product team has focused on evolving the app by adding new features to ensure that the platform provides a premium experience that is fitting for the premium content it houses. That means adding new personalization features including “For You” trays, age-targeted kid profiles, improved design, improved content details pages, accessibility features and others. We also took a bold step late last year and decided to release our 2021 Warner Bros. theatrical slate in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day, giving customers the ultimate choice on how they wanted to consume content, which proved to be a solid strategy.

Our tech team is also working hard to deliver the best viewing experiences which includes support for HDR10 and 4K streaming. As we regularly update and release new content via HBO Max, you’ll see more and more content available in these formats.

Q: What have been some of the biggest benefits of HBO Max being available on Samsung Smart TVs?

A: There have been plenty of benefits we’ve found in partnering with Samsung and leaning into Tizen’s distinct operating system. Thanks to Tizen OS, Samsung’s TV and projectors allow us to take HBO Max into many different large-format surfaces and enable high-quality as well as varied interactions with users.

It also offers an integrated, streamlined experience for users for more enjoyable viewing. The HBO Max app will be featured on the launch bar for 2021 and 2022 televisions for convenient access, and we’re leveraging the strength of Tizen’s Universal Guide feature in those regions where it’s available. We have also deepened our integration of HBO Max content into Tizen’s search functionality to provide a more seamless experience for customers from start to finish.

Q: Is there anything you can share on the HBO Max roadmap that, along with Samsung’s Smart TVs, will help provide consumers with more valuable experiences?

A: Samsung is a valued partner of ours and we’re looking forward to building on a solid foundation we’ve built together since the launch of HBO Max. Samsung customers can expect key updates to the app experience in the coming weeks including the addition of 4K, Dolby Atmos and 5.1 audio. Also on the roadmap are enhanced functionality with Bixby, as well as the addition of ‘Continue Watching’ and ‘Personalized Preview’ features that will help to create an even more seamless and customized viewing experience.

Q: Lastly, are there any exciting movies and shows that HBO Max subscribers can look forward to later this year?

A: Absolutely. We are excited about a number of new series and movies set for release throughout the second half of this year and plans for expansion into new markets.

Our team is excited about the recently launched Gossip Girl series reboot, as well as the original film No Sudden Move, plus new Max originals The Sex Lives of College Girls from Mindy Kaling and the next chapter of Sex and the City called And Just Like That. There’s also the return of HBO-favorites including Succession, Insecure and Curb Your Enthusiasm. On the movie front, new Warner Bros. theatrical releases have been and will be released on the platform on the same days as theaters with titles including Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Suicide Squad, The Many Saints of Newark and Dune, among others.

¹ Over the Top (OTT) Services Market Latest Industry Trends, Size, Share, Statistics, Applications and Competition Strategies by 2028, Fortune Business Insights

Samsung Electronics announced that beginning today, all 2019 Samsung Smart TVs and select 2018 TV models with a firmware update will feature the all-new Apple TV app in more than 100 countries and offer AirPlay 2 support in 176 countries. Samsung customers are now able to enjoy Apple TV channels and iTunes movies and TV shows on Samsung Smart TVs.

“For the last decade, Samsung has been at the forefront of offering the broadest selection of content available to consumers on our Smart TV platform.” said Won-Jin Lee, Executive Vice President, Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “As the first TV manufacturer to integrate the Apple TV app on a Smart TV platform, Samsung continues to offer our customers incredible value and access to the Apple TV app experience on the largest screens available today.”

Fully integrated into Samsung’s Smart TV platform, users can simply select the Apple TV app icon to access all of their iTunes movies and TV show purchases and browse more than 100,000 iTunes movies and TV shows to buy or rent, including titles available in 4K HDR, in pristine picture quality. Customers around the world can also subscribe to Apple TV channels within the Apple TV app — paying for only the ones they want — and watch on demand directly in the app. Samsung Smart TV users will be able to enjoy Apple TV+, Apple’s original video subscription service, in the Apple TV app across the same model lines when the service launches this fall. With AirPlay 2-enabled Samsung Smart TVs, customers can now also effortlessly play videos and other content from their iPhone, iPad or Mac directly to their Samsung Smart TV.

The Apple TV app will work seamlessly with Samsung’s Smart TV Services, such as Universal Guide, Bixby and Search, to create a consistent experience across Samsung’s platform.

For more information on Samsung’s Smart TVs, please visit https://www.samsung.com/tv.