I’ve owned my Samsung TV for about 18 months now and only just discovered it offers a Samsung Gaming Hub which allows me to use GamePass, GeForce Now etc. I currently only own a Switch so I’d be interested in playing some more powerful games, I’m wondering if any of these are worth trying?
Has anyone else used any of these services? I suppose without knowing anything about them, I’d probably go for Xbox first… but maybe GeForce is better. The game I’d want to play most is probably Red Dead 2 but it doesn’t appear to be on any of the services, unsurprisingly. How does it handle saving games etc? Has anybody had any problems with losing saves? What’s the quality like? Can you fiddle with the graphics like you would with PC games to make them run smoother? As its a cloud service, can you just select a game and it’s installed on the server side or do you need to install anything locally?
I’ve got GeForce Now which combined with syncing your GamePass to gives great coverage of games. I’ve found the performance much better than the Xbox cloud services on load times, connection speed and graphics.
I’ve been playing Indiana Jones, Stalker 2 and Battlefield on high/max settings with no issues and that’s even with online gaming. That is on the Ultimate package, it seems the basic offering has long wait times and lower performance. Bonus right now is that for some reason they’re not charging existing subscribers due to transitioning between payment systems.
I’ve not had any issues on saves being lost, it appears to be a risk early on when the game first gets configured as Stalker 2 had lots of complaints on launch.
You get full control on changing graphics setting once loaded and it’ll auto suggest based on connection. No install required at all, bigger games take a little longer to load up but nothing noticeable in comparison to realising you’ve got a 5GB patch when you just want to jump on for a short session.
The main limitations are there’s no modding and you’re stuck to what games they’ll support. I also expect they’re going to massively up the price and adjust the tier features.
This is all on ‘Epic’ and normally remains stable around that, be better if I was on a wired connection. Most noticeable thing I’ve had is an audio drop/lag on Bluetooth headphones.
Very helpful, thanks! A few questions about GeForce specifically….
I went on their site to get a one month membership to try it out, but it says it’s sold out on all plans. Do they have a limited supply each month?
I noticed on there it said it connects to digital game stores so you can play what you already own. So let’s say I want to play something random like Monkey Island that I own on steam. It allows me to play it over the cloud? Does my PC need to be switched on and it streams from my PC? The reason I ask is because my laptop is 10 years old and barely able to open a word document any more, so I can’t play anything on it anyway
So I think the reason they’ve closed up new accounts is they’re changing the payment system. I’ve no idea why it’s being handled that badly as it should be seamless changing out providers. Supply isn’t limited for creating accounts, but they will limit hours per month, session length to manage wait times.
No need for PC to be turned on, in the app you can link your steam, Xbox, Unisoft, epic and battle.net accounts and it’ll check what games you own. If they’re on there then you can play, it’ll spin up an instance of that store on the virtual machine and login as you and then load the game.
I think I’ve misunderstood. GeForce now only lets you play games you already own on various platforms, but they support up to 2000 of them? Whereas Xbox GamerPass allows you to play games you don’t own a copy of, is that right?
GeForce Now also classes a subscription to GamePass as ownership as well, so you can combine the services which makes it confusing talking about both.
I used GamePass cloud services a little but there was always a wait and quite a bit of input lag, in recent times I just used it to stream games like slay the spire on my phone and it was fine for that.
GamePass is good if there’s stuff on it you want to play, and it’s got a pretty decent library. I’m always one release away from cancelling my subscription, though, which I guess is how they get you (next one keeping me hooked in: Avowed at the end of this month). I use it on both my Samsung telly and my Steam Deck and it works great on both. It’s a shame there isn’t a GamePass app for Switch - maybe Switch 2?
I had GeForce Now for 6 months but cancelled it once I got my own local streaming setup running well. No point in me streaming from the cloud when I’ve got a beefier PC than theirs () upstairs that I can stream to the telly instead. But before then, it was really useful for a few games. Not sure I’d recommend it more generally though, the library limitations are kind of weird.
I get Luna’s most basic tier through Amazon Prime and it’s pretty much entirely games that don’t exist. Dunno what the premium tier is like, haven’t looked.
Play game pass on a fire stick works and it works surprisingly well. Worth getting a months code on shop to or cd keys to see how well it’ll work for you.
What do they deem as being in your library? I have an old gamertag with all my Xbox 360 achievements, would be good to be able to play all those without getting the 360 out of the roof space. I see Skate and Skate 3 are already on there, that’s almost good enough for me alone
Got a free month of Xbox with my new tv. Played a bit of Indy earlier, impressed with how quick it all was to set up and get playing. Everything seems smooth except for walking forward which seems a bit stuttery but only played for about 20 mins.
Managed to log into my old 360 account and unlocked my first achievement in 12 or 13 years
Free month down and I’ve immediately bought a second from CDKeys. When I put the code in Microsoft then offered me an extra month free if I switched on auto-renew.
So far I’m very, very happy with the service. I’ve only experienced slow down playing Dead By Daylight on the TV furthest away from the router. I assume the online aspects of that game eat into the bandwidth too much to allow it to function properly.
The kids are getting loads of use out of it too, the Switch has barely been touched since Little Kitty Big City and bizarrely enough Power Wash Simulator have become available.
My old xbox 360 controllers sadly didn’t work, but I’ve read up on it and apparently they used their own proprietary wireless connection, not bluetooth. The wired ones worked fine but I ended up getting one of these from Argos which works a treat at half the price of an xbox or PS controller https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7318544
Sounds like great value so far, especially with the extra free month on top. Streaming hiccups on the far TV make sense, but overall it seems like the service is fitting your home really well. Funny how quickly the kids switched over too!
) upstairs that I can stream to the telly instead. But before then, it was really useful for a few games. Not sure I’d recommend it more generally though, the library limitations are kind of weird.