Samsung joins the console wars E3 2012

Samsung announced at E3 2012 that it will be offering it’s customers the opportunity to replace their PS3, Wii and XBox consoles, introducing cloud gaming on their Smart TV’s!

No, Samsung are not launching a dedicated games console, rather, they are the first company who are taking advantage of the cloud, by simply adding the functionality to their latest generation of internet-connected TV’s. Pretty awesome, because everyone who goes out and buy’s the latest Samsung TV will be able to play the latest games such as Mass Effect 3, The Witcher 2 and Fifa 2012 to name but a few, through a games service app. Users will be able to purchase the game of their choice via this service in order to have unlimited access to play the game.

So lets consider the positives…you will be able to purchase and play the latest games as they come out, which means no queues, no disappointment when you get to the store and they are out of stock, no waiting for your purchase to arrive and from the perspective of a PC owner, no need to upgrade to get maximum frames from the latest games. Simply purchase, and be immersed within the game before the couch gets warm.

But lets consider the potential pitfalls and drawbacks. Will the games on this platform look as stunning as on the latest 680GTX Graphics card or PS3? – both built and designed with gaming at their core. As a purist, my mind is struggling to agree that it will live up to its dedicated gaming counterparts. Secondly, lets consider the equipment that allows you to interface with the game. Sony, Nintendo and Wii have spent hundreds of man hours on research and invested countless sums of money to build the most ergonomic controllers that sync perfectly with their dedicated gaming equipment, so as to ensure that response times are only reliant on the person playing the game, and that a user can play for hours even days (depending on how gaming fit you are) without experiencing any discomfort. Samsung has yet to reveal what equipment and how this equipment will sync with its new technology. Moreover, with the recent server pitfalls experienced by Blizzard around the Launch of Diablo 3, one can only assume that this problem may potentially be exponential in this environment? – Notwithstanding the fact that if game quality is dependent on the speed of a users internet connection, the SA market (and the majority of the entire 3rd world) are pretty much stuffed.

In summary, I think this is a fantastic idea for a very niche market, who have nothing better to do with their money. I.e. Your more casual gamer. My prediction is that this will not compete with the likes of dedicated gaming tech that we have become accustom to in every household, not at least for the next 5 – 10 years. Samsung need to go through the same hurdles as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft before they really join the console wars.