PHȲND, a free, ad-supported cloud gaming service built for smart TVs, and Samsung are teaming up in a new global distribution partnership that will bring a subscription-free gaming experience to millions of Samsung smart TV users through the Samsung Gaming Hub.
Announced today at the GamesCom 2025 conference, the partnership is the first of its kind for PHȲND, as the company looks to make high-quality gaming content more accessible globally and create new revenue streams for the gaming industry. Meanwhile, the deal brings a more enhanced gaming experience to the Samsung Gaming Hub, which is powered by Tizen and acts as a central platform for game streaming.
The integration will first debut in the United States later this year, with PHȲND offering instant access to a curated library of popular games without consoles, downloads, or subscriptions. Players of all levels will be able to access games using their TV remote, smartphone, or gamepad. Meanwhile, game developers and publishers will be able to monetize opportunities through non-intrusive, audience-based advertising and sponsorships.
“Samsung is our first partnership that we’re announcing, and we’re excited about that,” André Swanston, CEO and co-founder of PHȲND, told ADWEEK. “On top of the integration, we’ve also built in the monetization layer. That dramatically increases the total addressable market for games.”
PHȲND’s FAST approach to cloud gaming
The partnership puts PHȲND in the middle of two growing categories: cloud gaming and smart TV advertising. According to market analyst firm Omdia, cloud gaming revenues could reach $12 billion by 2026.
Swanston said up until this point, the main thing that has held back advertising across the big screen on gaming is targeting at scale.
“It’s been hard to have the higher quality games on smart TVs because smart TVs don’t have the memory built into them, so you can’t download really good games on a smart TV,” Swanston said. “In order to do that, it has to be in the cloud, but all the cloud solutions have been subscription-based, so you then have had no ability to bring advertising at scale. What free, ad-supported streaming like Pluto TV and Tubi did for streaming solutions and Smart TV inventory, PHȲND is going to do that again for gaming.”
