PlayGalaxy Link Game Streaming Shutting Down Just Four Months After Launch

Streaming is a hot topic in the entertainment industry and it has lately seeped into games as well. It is, however, not something everyone can jump into considering the resources needed to support such a business. That may be the consideration behind "internal changes" over at Samsung that has resulted in the decision to ax the company's "sort of" game streaming service, PlayLink Galaxy, just four months after it went live.

To be clear, PlayGalaxy Link's streaming isn't the same kind that the likes of Google Stadia or NVIDIA GeForce NOW sell to subscribers. It's more along the lines of Valve's Steam Link where you can only stream games that you already own and are installed on a PC. The only difference is that PlayGalaxy Link allows you to do so even when you're away from your home network over 4G or even 5G.

Even then, Samsung's free offering isn't completely its own. The technology that underlies PlayGalaxy Link is actually from Parsec, a startup that has long been doing this kind of game streaming even before Samsung slapped its brand on top of it.

PlayGalaxy Link launched in public beta on the then brand new Galaxy Note 10 back in November. Come March 27, 2020, however, Samsung will be shutting down its service. It only cites internal policy changes as the reason but it's not difficult to imagine how the higher-ups believed it wasn't doing the business any good.

On the other hand, there has also been news that Samsung and Microsoft are teaming up on a cloud-centric game streaming service to more properly rival Stadia. Those who still believe in PlayGalaxy Link's vision of game streaming can still access the original Parsec service instead.