For years it seemed that there was only one way phone manufacturers could complete: camera specs. Every phone launch became “check out this amazing camera that also makes calls and texts and stuff”. But, with the Google Pixel 8, Apple iPhone 15 and now Samsung S24 launches, three key battlegrounds have emerged: cameras (still), AI, and gaming. With today’s announcement of ray tracing, it looks like Samsung AAA gaming might soon be a thing.
The gaming chops of the Samsung Galaxy S24 are pretty solid. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip allows for ray tracing (which looked gorgeous in my hands on with it on mobile FPS Arena Breakout), and the much larger Vapour Chamber should assist with cooling and thus graphical stability.
But one announcement was missing. Where are the games? When Apple announced the iPhone 15 Pro, the company also announced that Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 and Death Stranding were coming to iPhone. Hideo Kojima made an announcement at Apple’s WWDC conference.
In an interview with Gizmodo Australia, Eric Chou, head of mobile division at Samsung Australia said “There are certainly a lot of partnerships in the works with gaming developers, hence the reason we’re able to produce the kind of graphics you see on ray tracing. But in terms of specific titles being ported across from consoles, I don’t have that information.”
On the one hand, this information is full of hope and promise for the future, but also tells us nothing.
Speaking from his personal perspective, Chou expressed hope for the future of Samsung gaming. “Personally, of course, that would be the ideal position for us to be in to ensure that we’re able to take the great titles people are gaming at home and take them to mobile. Mobile gaming is something people are taking quite seriously now, it’s not just something you do Candy Crush on.”
Of course, given the proliferation of cloud gaming, you don’t necessarily need to buy AAA titles on mobile, when you could just subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or GeForce now, particularly if you’re also using Xbox Game Pass on your Samsung TV.
But seeing Apple and now Samsung (somewhat) going hard on mobile gaming shows that this could be one of the next major growth areas for smartphone competition, and also gaming more broadly.
Zachariah Kelly travelled to San Jose as a guest of Samsung.