Supporting Cloud-Native Smart TV Gaming With Decentralized Cloud Infrastructure

The global smart TV market encompasses over 665 million households with over 1.1 billion users and a market capitalization of $223 billion in 2024. Some statistics suggest that the market value of the smart TV sector will reach a staggering $668 billion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.6%. On the other hand, the global gaming industry’s current value is over $440 billion, with projections for 2032 going as far as $1.06 trillion. The intersection between these two massive industries presents a huge growth opportunity for smart TV manufacturers, gaming publishers, and gamers looking to conveniently enjoy AAA gaming from the comfort of their living rooms.

Smart TV gaming is an expanding industry niche that merges state-of-the-art gaming experiences with cinematic, big-screen home entertainment. However, it’s currently mostly tied to expensive gaming consoles like PlayStation and Xbox and pricey streaming services like Xbox Game Pass and Steam. In these cases, besides buying a smart TV set from a reputable manufacturer that supports cloud gaming functionalities, players also need to pay for additional gaming hardware, controllers, and streaming services. Furthermore, services like GeForce Now and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate rely on centralized GPU resources and require an expensive monthly subscription, which might be a deal-breaker for users who aren’t passionate gamers but would still like to have access to occasional smart TV gaming. 

Cloud-native smart TV gaming that leverages decentralized cloud infrastructure can be a viable alternative to expensive service subscriptions and hardware requirements. By leveraging underutilized GPU resources, decentralized GPU infrastructure can use available resources more efficiently and provide services at considerably lower prices. 

Aethir’s DePIN stack is built for various AI and gaming use cases. It is fully capable of empowering cloud streaming services with our cost-efficient model that channels idle processing power where it’s needed the most. That’s why Aethir can support cloud-native smart TV gaming at scale. 

Cloud-Native Smart TV Gaming: How Does It Work?

The smart TV market presents a tremendous opportunity to expand top-quality gaming experiences by integrating cloud gaming services with TV manufacturers at the factory level. TV users differ from passionate gamers because they include household members of all ages and preferences. That’s why gaming needs to be easily accessible on smart TVs to also attract household members who want to try light gaming without the hassle of lengthy installation processes or complex streaming service subscriptions. 

Cloud-native smart TV gaming offers a cinematic gaming experience incomparable with mobile or PC gaming, thanks to today's smart TVs' ultra-high-resolution capacities and engaging audio-visual systems. While playing games on smart TVs, players can immerse themselves in fast-paced gaming with breathtaking visuals and open-world gameplay on a never-before-seen scale. 

Return Entertainment is a pioneer in the cloud-native smart TV gaming sector. Their innovative game streaming service comes pre-installed on a selection of top-shelf Samsung smart TVs in the US. Return Entertainment’s gaming solution doesn’t require additional hardware or expensive subscriptions because it’s integrated with Samsung smart TV sets and utilizes smartphones as game controllers. Users can scan the QR code within Return Entertainment’s cloud gaming app and proceed straight to playing their flagship gaming title, Rivals Arena. 

Return Entertainment introduced a cloud-first platform designed for game builders to access the smart TV gaming sector, which is why they partnered with Aethir as their dedicated cloud computing provider. With our help, Samsung TV users in the US are enjoying Rivals Arena from the comfort of their living rooms, with their smartphones as controllers, and without expensive service subscriptions. This innovative cloud-native smart TV gaming service goes way beyond, with Return Entertainment and Aethir working together on building a cloud gaming platform accessible to all TV manufacturers and thus paving the way for the future of smart TV cloud gaming’s mass use. 

The ability to stream high-resolution gaming experiences seamlessly, frictionlessly, without burdening players with additional expenses is a key aspect of the future of cloud-native smart TV gaming.

Lowering the Entry Bar for Smart TV Cloud Gamers With Decentralized Cloud Infrastructure

An essential prerequisite for onboarding smart TV users into the cloud gaming ecosystem is ease of use because TV users aren’t necessarily passionate gamers. By eliminating additional hardware requirements and expensive streaming service subscriptions, cloud-native smart TV gaming that utilizes Return Entertainment’s model, powered by Aethir, can enable smart TV users to access immersive gaming experiences at their convenience easily. Let’s imagine average smart TV users who mainly use their devices to watch movies and TV shows or listen to music but occasionally like to engage in gaming. If entry barriers require these users to make additional purchases or subscriptions, they might give up on trying to play games on their smart TVs and stick to mobile or PC gaming. However, if the process is streamlined and simply requires them to scan a QR code to start playing, then there are no entry barriers, and these average users could easily be converted to smart TV cloud gamers.

Similarly, passionate gamers will more easily join the cloud-native smart TV gaming sector if they have an affordable, efficient, and user-friendly cloud gaming option compared to expensive services and hardware. This is especially true for younger gamers, who don’t have the financial means to support such expenses. Furthermore, in regions where high-end PC and gaming consoles are scarce, smart TV cloud gaming can be a more affordable alternative because if they need to choose, households will more likely purchase a mid-range smart TV than an expensive gaming console (which also requires a smart TV for playing) or an expensive PC gaming rig. 

Aethir’s decentralized GPU cloud is globally distributed in numerous server locations and pools processing power from multiple GPU Containers simultaneously. Our GPU network uses underutilized GPU resources and channels them to end-users through distributed infrastructure, which allows us to remove common cloud computing inefficiencies. The key difference between centralized cloud computing services and Aethir is that we use the maximum GPU capacity of available resources. In contrast, centralized providers often use less than 50% of a specific GPU’s capacity because they dedicate one entire GPU per user. Since users rarely utilize 100% of a dedicated cloud GPU, the remaining capacity remains unused and the service provider needs to keep high service costs to maintain the profitability of their operations. Thanks to decentralization, Aethir’s GPU cloud is much cheaper and allows smart TV cloud gamers to access apex big-screen gaming experiences without expensive service subscriptions.

Aethir’s Decentralized Cloud: Empowering Game Publishers With Access to an Untapped Market Segment

For cloud gamers, Aethir’s decentralized infrastructure network can make cloud-native smart TV gaming much more affordable than traditional service providers without sacrificing service quality or efficiency. On the other hand, game publishers, TV manufacturers, and gaming studios can gain access to a potentially highly profitable service that can attract millions of gamers with the value proposition of low-cost, easy-to-use smart TV cloud gaming experiences. 

Game publishers can increase user acquisition rates and lower costs by providing smart TV users with an easy, streamlined cloud gaming TV experience. Furthermore, cloud-native smart TV gaming is in its infancy, and decentralized cloud infrastructure can provide a viable alternative for gaming studios compared to centralized clouds and streaming services, which are much more costly and often inefficient. Centralized cloud computing providers may be able to provide sufficient computing power for smart TV gaming platforms, but their pricing could be too expensive for gamers, especially when streaming platforms have millions of users in regions far away from the cloud provider’s data centers. 

Since smart TV usage is rapidly expanding in regions such as Southeast Asia, where major cloud providers have only a handful of cloud data centers, decentralized cloud infrastructure can solve latency issues by utilizing distributed GPU cloud resources. Aethir’s GPU cloud can provide game publishers and TV manufacturers with easy access to vast player bases while guaranteeing ultra-low-latency performance, essential for high-quality gaming. In turn, this can directly lead to increased user acquisition for both industries through the fusion of decentralized cloud infrastructure and modern smart TV cloud gaming. 

Paving the Way for Cloud-Native Smart TV Gaming’s Future With Aethir

The cloud-native smart TV gaming sector is just starting its exciting journey, and it’s already showing significant promises with Return Entertainment and Aethir’s close collaboration to democratize access to top-notch home entertainment. Together, the two companies are working on an innovative cloud gaming solution accessible to all smart TV manufacturers and game publishers wanting to launch their titles on a cost-efficient smart TV cloud gaming platform.

Decentralized GPU cloud infrastructure can enhance how users watch, play, and immerse themselves in interactive big-screen content without the need to pay for additional hardware or expensive monthly service subscriptions. By leveraging decentralized GPU resources, Aethir is cutting unnecessary expenses and making smart TV cloud gaming accessible to users worldwide by simply scanning a QR code with their smart devices.