Some future Samsung TVs will come with Steam Link, the device that allows PC games from Valve’s Steam platform to be played on TVs, built in.
Announcing the news at the Steam Dev Days conference, Valve confirmed it has officially partnered with Samsung to integrate the technology into its future smart TVs, eliminating the need for customers to by the actual Steam Link box.
The Steam Link box allows PC owners to play games on TVs around their house by streaming the game from the PC itself to the box and onto the TV.
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With the technology built-in to Samsung’s TVs, users will, of course, still need a powerful enough PC to run the games, as well as a controller, such as Valve’s own Steam Controller.
The device comes with four face buttons, and dual trackpads, and launched this year for £39.99 – though Samsung may decide to bundle a controller with its Link-enabled TVs.
Unfortunately, at this point a release date for the Steam Link equipped sets is yet to be confirmed, so you’ll have to hold tight for a little while longer.
There’s also no word on which TV models will come with the new capability, but we’re hoping to hear more in the very near future.
Sony has previously integrated its own PlayStation Now game streaming service into its TVs, as well as certain Samsung smart sets, but game streaming in general is yet to take off in a big way.
Samsung and Valve’s partnership will undoubtedly help to move things along in that respect, however, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see more partnerships such as this cropping up in the next few years.
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Let us know if you’d buy a Steam Link enabled Samsung TV in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.