Not every feature, and not even every gimmick, coupled with a smartphone or other device is going to be used by every owner. Not everyone is looking for the same thing when they buy a product, but that's one of the many reasons why companies like Samsung shove so many things into their devices. They want to be a product that anyone can pick up and be happy with.
Which is why some features may go by the wayside, and, ultimately, get dropped by the company.
Earlier this week, Samsung confirmed that it is shutting down the PlayGalaxy Link game streaming service later this month. This allowed owners of supported Samsung Galaxy devices to stream their PC games to their phone. The company says it's shutting down the service due to "internal policy changes", adding that shutting down this particular service will let designers, engineers, and developers "effectively focus its resources and add value to the next release of new product". Which is all well and good, especially if it means that the next product those folks are working on is popular and worthwhile.
Which we may already have an idea of what that is. Samsung announced not too long ago that it is working with Microsoft on a game streaming service, and Microsoft has its xCloud service already out there in the wild. And if you haven't tried it yet, you should, because it works pretty well. So if Samsung is leaning into xCloud for streaming games, well, it makes sense that it would shut down PlayGalaxy Link, right?
Maybe if this wasn't Samsung we're talking about, a company that is absolutely not afraid to launch competing products on its phones. How many times have we seen Samsung launch something that other companies are already doing, and, ultimately, have done much better? Remember Samsung's Milk streaming music service? Exactly. Samsung's not afraid to give it a shot, even if the writing on the wall says it's not really worth the effort.
PlayGalaxy Link was only announced in November of last year and the company is already calling it quits. Sure, that suggests teaming up with Microsoft makes sense, but it also probably tells us that the service was just not being used in the way Samsung expected.
Which leads me to ask: Were you using Samsung's PlayGalaxy Link game streaming service? Did you even remember it was a thing you could do? Because I'll be honest, I completely forgot this service existed at all. If you did use it, what did you think? Do you believe Samsung's making the right decision by shutting it down later this month? Let me know what you think!
