Exposed: Samsung forced to pay $15M after Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S22 gaming scandal

 

This might sound like a dedicated gaming feature that is supposed to boost the mobile gaming experience, but it turns out that the system was primarily responsible for heat management during gaming.

The GOS feature would begin throttling the S21 and S22 immediately after a game was launched, resulting in low performance, freezing, lag, and graphical issues.

Galaxy S21 and S22 throttling not caused by heat

Here's where things get interesting. We all know how tightly packed chips inside smartphones tend to overheat in high-performance scenarios, such as gaming. That's completely normal, as the excess heat is hard to dissipate in such a tight space — it has nowhere to go.

Smartphone manufacturers implement failsafe systems to protect chips from permanent damage, and throttle their performance as the temperature goes up.

In the case of the Samsung GOS service, the FTC found that this "optimization system" throttles GPU and CPU performance regardless of the phone's temperature.

Samsung plans to appeal the fine

The FTC states that this fine should serve as a reminder that companies need to clearly inform their customers of important factors tied to performance.

Samsung, on the other hand, plans to fight the $15M fine and states that the GOS feature was implemented to "…allow users to enjoy games stably for extended periods."

The wording is quite interesting here. Samsung might've just messed up with the GOS feature not working properly rather than deliberately misleading mobile gamers.

Another potential culprit is the Exynos chipset. International and Korean models of the S21 use the Exynos 2100 SoC, and these chips, especially in their earlier iterations, were notoriously hot and throttled easily.

Samsung might've used the USA Snapdragon version for most of the gaming ad campaigns, and that could be the reason for the discrepancy. Have you noticed gaming issues on the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S22?

 

Gaming on a smartphone? Is it worth it in 2026?

Gaming has gotten better on mobile devices, and there are some pretty good ports and titles that rival consoles and PCs in graphics and overall gaming experience.

That being said, the nature of a smartphone as a multi-purpose mobile device limits mobile gaming — or should I say shapes it into the way it is today.

People don't have hours to sit and just play a mobile game on their phones (in most cases), and mobile games have adapted to offer short bursts of dopamine spikes with casual gameplay, in-app purchases, gacha mechanics, and more.

For me, personally, mobile gaming will never overcome this conceptual disadvantage, and even though there are exceptions, if you want to game, you're better off buying a dedicated system — a Nintendo Switch or a Steam Deck.

How often do you play games on your smartphone and for how long?