There’s bad news for anyone who owns an older Samsung TV from 2020 or earlier who also happens to enjoy Xbox game streaming. The Xbox app will stop working on those TVs next month, because a new firmware update means it’s no longer compatible with them. Microsoft delivered the news to 2020 Samsung TV owners via an email.
In a statement sent to Windows Central, Microsoft said the Xbox app on Samsung 2020 TVs “will no longer be supported” from November 3, because the updates it’s bringing to Xbox Cloud Gaming “are no longer compatible with the operating system” found on those models.
Microsoft advised that users will still be able to stream cloud Xbox games on other devices, such as newer TVs, PCs, smartphones, tablets and Xbox consoles (of course), but no doubt anyone who actually uses an older Samsung TV will be bitterly disappointed.
It’s a significant blow, because Samsung’s 2020 TVs were the first in the world to actually support the Xbox app, and now they’re one of the first to lose access to it.
Even worse is that Microsoft’s decision is another example of a concerning trend that has seen numerous best-selling TVs lose access to popular streaming apps, despite not being that old, especially when you consider the average lifetime of a QLED TV is between 8 and 10 years.
Other apps to be removed from relatively young TVs that still work perfectly well include PlayStation Now, Netflix, YouTube and HBO Plus, and there are many others.
Samsung appeared to acknowledge this trend a couple of years ago when it committed to providing seven years of Tizen upgrades for every new smart TV it sells, but the problem is that it’s only doing this for models launched in 2023 and later. So TVs from 2020, 2021 and 2022 do not get this guarantee, and could theoretically find themselves running an out-of-date Tizen OS at any moment, which could in turn mean they start losing compatibility as streaming apps are updated.
Jez Corden of Windows Central criticised Microsoft’s decision, especially considering the Xbox app is just a simple web app rather than something that’s specifically developed for the Tizen operating system. However, Microsoft later informed him that the latest updates to the Xbox Cloud Gaming service require a new Chromium API to support certain next-generation features coming to Xbox games, which are expected to enhance the quality and latency of games.
“Samsung has no plans to bring further updates to their Tizen-based 2020 TV sets, and Chromium hasn’t been upgraded there in almost a decade,” Microsoft explained, essentially trying to pass the buck, despite being responsible for the Xbox app’s new requirements.
But Corden made his displeasure clear, speculating that the company may have done this deliberately, considering that there are a significant number of 2020 Samsung TV owners using the app, which has so far proven to be unprofitable for the company. In fact, the lack of profit from cloud gaming has led to speculation Microsoft may even seek to kill the Xbox Cloud Gaming service completely, though Microsoft has denied this.
“Perhaps Microsoft has discovered a way to quickly and easily save bandwidth by screwing over thousands of existing users in the name of ‘compatibility’,” Corden wrote.
While Microsoft might be hoping that whatever updates it’s planning, which the 2020 Samsung TVs can’t support, will boost the popularity of cloud gaming, it still has a long way to go. At present, the service only has around 30 million subscribers, as most Xbox advocates stick with the physical console to run their games, due to the lower latency and greater choice of games available. It seems to be gambling that, although it may lose some subscribers initially, the updates will eventually bring newer users to the service. But that remains to be seen.
2020 Samsung TVs still support Nvidia’s GeForce Now application, so owners still have one good option for playing top-tier video games.
