With game streaming, you can now play games basically anywhere you want, regardless of whether you’re carrying gaming hardware around or not. However, with game streaming, you need reliable connections to ensure your games feel as native and locally-run as possible, which includes the connection to your game controller. Samsung’s solution for streaming on its smart TVs is new “certified” gaming controllers.
In a bid to get more people to play streamed games on its smart TVs and its game streaming hub, aptly named Samsung Gaming Hub, Samsung is launching a certification program for controller makers to have their controllers certified for game streaming. Samsung will be certifying controllers from certain hardware makers that provide the “best possible game streaming experience on Samsung Gaming Hub, regardless of the supported Samsung device players choose.”
Samsung will apparently evaluate a series of criteria to know whether a controller would work well with game streaming on Samsung TVs, including factors such as performance, compatibility, and safety. Hardware makers who choose to partner with Samsung on this will get a “Designed for Samsung Gaming Hub” badge, that will let users know that, indeed, a controller will work with game streaming, at least on Samsung’s dedicated hub.
The first controller with this certification is the PDP Replay Wireless Controller. It has up to 40 hours of battery life and Bluetooth LE connectivity up to 30 feet away. Perhaps more notably, though, it has volume and power buttons for your TV as well as a dedicated button to launch the Samsung Gaming Hub. More than “performance and compatibility testing,” these are likely the real differences users will find compared tothe best non-certified controllers.
This program doesn’t mean that only certified controllers will work on the platform. The controller you’ve been using up until this point will continue to work, and likewise, most Bluetooth controllers should be okay. Aside from the extra buttons, we don’t know whether you’ll be finding an actual difference or advantage with certified controllers compared to any other reliable controller.
If you want to get one of these controllers, the PDP Replay is now available for pre-order on retailers such as Amazon. If you don’t currently have a gaming controller and would like to get started specifically on the Samsung Gaming Hub, this is an okay purchase.
