Well done Samsung (and Valve)! After making the xclud app exclusive for your brand and once the abk deal was done for Microsoft it's time to take away the competition, yes the Steam Link app will no longer be available on Samsung TV after November 30th 2023 and will be likely automatically uninstalled from our TVs just to mess with us consumers, better be prepared for antitrust and class actions lawsuits for both the suspicious timing and for taking away an advertised TV feature
EDIT:
In chronological order the steam link app was made by Samsung with a third party dev and collaboration from Valve 2016(+) and was heavily advertised as a Samsung TV feature. Once a deal was made with Microsoft for the xcloud TV exclusive the steam link app was put on support only and not available on models from that year 2022(+) and onwards. After the two years and actively sabotaging the Steam link app with the volume on the right stick thing and forcing the TV OS home menu on the controller home key the app will be now forcebly removed from our TV even if it could work perfectly fine a few days before the abk deal was made... So Microsoft needs gamepass user now and Samsung will help while Valve does not care for us
Got this message last night as the family played Drawful .. pretty gutted, and just don't see why it'll be removed when it works so well in spite of not being updated in so long. Just leave it alone Samsung! Even block new installs of it if you want.. but leave it installed for anyone who's already got it!
Terribly disappointed in this - I use the Steam Link App a lot as it somehow has had much lower latency than other solutions. If there were a technical reason (Valve was somehow changing the protocol which would require rework) - I would understand, but as many pointed out - it hasn't been touched since 2018! Just leave it alone for the sake of your customers.
In the process of pricing out a new Hisense or Sony TV for the holidays. Abrupt ending to an app touted as a feature when purchase isn't a good business model. Once I'm do for an upgrade not touching galaxy phones either.
For anyone with a spare Raspberry Pi 3 (or above), I've blogged about using that as a Steam Link client, so at least you can get this functionality back if Samsung does actively remove it from the TV!
Great way to lose me as a customer for life, Samsung, and I have been a lifelong customer. If you don't fix this this, I'm not buying your phones, TVs, or anything else again. And you explicitly advertised this Steamlink app as a special feature a couple years ago... Way to on a 100% brand loyal consumer. Very well. Your bloatware was getting on my nerves, anyway...
Simply terminating support would be disappointing, but removing it from the app store and from people's TVs altogether is just spitting right in the face of customers. It's a really bad look, Samsung.
What a shame... well, just this month I am moving and will need to buy a new TV, guess what brand I'm not buying anymore after having 3 Samsung TVs previously...
