Samsung Killed PlayGalaxy Link and No One Even Noticed

• Samsung quietly killed its PlayGalaxy Link cloud gaming service.
• Mounting competition from the likes of Google Stadia and GeForce Now likely factored into the decision.
• Samsung is teaming up with Microsoft to collaborate on Project xCloud.

Samsung quietly shuttered its cloud gaming service, PlayGalaxy Link, before it even got off the ground. Or, more accurately, Samsung stealthy announced late last month that it was pulling the curtain down on the project on Mar. 27.

Samsung Shutters PlayGalaxy Link

Samsung shared the decision to ax PlayGalaxy Link with such little fanfare that the news has only surfaced now, nearly a month later.

A short message welcoming visitors to the official PlayGalaxy Link website says that a “difficult decision” and “internal policy changes” led to the service’s demise. Samsung says:

This will allow our Development organization to more effectively focus its resources and add value to the next release of new product[s].

The vague wording leaves little to latch on to. PlayGalaxy Link has only been around since late last year. A short beta saw select Samsung smartphone users test out the app. It went mostly unnoticed due to a bevy of new contenders joining the cloud gaming fray in recent months.

It’s likely that competition from Google Stadia and, more recently, the well-received GeForce Now, proved too much. More newcomers are jumping onto the cloud gaming bandwagon, most recently Shadow. It seems Samsung deemed the limited functionality of PlayGalaxy Link incapable of competing.

Samsung Teams Up With Microsoft

Samsung isn’t abandoning its cloud gaming ambitions entirely, though. During the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco last month, the company announced it was working on a “premium cloud-based game streaming experience” with Microsoft .

Further clarification revealed that the collaboration is linked to Microsoft’s Project xCloud  cloud gaming service. Although details remain thin, Microsoft explained a desire to bring cloud gaming to players “on the device of their choice.” Both Microsoft and Samsung say we can expect to hear more later this year.

There’s a lot of sense in teaming up with Microsoft and its arsenal of Azure data centers scattered across the globe  rather than going at it alone. The end of PlayGalaxy Link is likely Samsung regrouping to come back stronger as part of Project xCloud.