Xbox Game Pass, gaming’s closest thing to Netflix, is coming to Samsung TVs

One of the best—if not the best—selling points for the Microsoft Xbox family of consoles, specifically the new Series S and Series X models, is the quick and easy ability to access the Xbox Game Pass service. Effectively the Netflix model but for video games, Game Pass is a subscription service where you play a flat monthly fee to get access to a pretty enormous library of games, including (sometimes) brand new stuff on day one. There’s even a PC variant, and thanks to cloud-streaming technology, you can even play a whole bunch of stuff on your phone or tablet.

But, the catch to all of that has been that, if you want to play a Game Pass game on a TV like our forefathers did, you need to have a thing hooked up—be it an Xbox or a PC. That’s going to change soon, with Microsoft announcing that Xbox Game Pass is coming to Samsung TVs, specifically brand new 2022 Smart TVs, at the end of this month. That’s only really interesting to people with those TVs, but for the rest of us, it does indicate that Microsoft is willing to start spreading Game Pass out a little further, potentially opening the door for a Game Pass app that streams Halo or whatever from the cloud to pop up in other places… like maybe a Nintendo Switch, or (perish the thought) a Sony Playstation, or (perish the thought and bury it in an unmarked grave) an Apple computer.

Microsoft hasn’t said anything about those possibilities, and certainly wouldn’t at this point when it wants to help sell some Samsung televisions, but it does seem like “put Game Pass on everything” is the endgame of the whole Xbox experiment.

As for how the Samsung thing works, CNN got an early look at it and has some extra details and impressions (like the fact that you can play using any Bluetooth-enabled controller, be it an Xbox pad or the PS5’s DualSense controller. CNN also says that Microsoft is working on a way for Xbox users to eventually play “select games” on other platforms like these Samsung TVs that aren’t part of Game Pass, assuming you bought them on an Xbox or PC