The impact of 5G on future of online gaming
Keeping track of the latest innovations in technology can be challenging, but developments continue to happen that make for a better gaming experience. The interesting thing is that a lot of the hardware and software improvements that come with the purchase of the latest device, or the connections that provide access to cloud gaming, happen behind the scenes.
They are just there, working for us in the background. One such thing is 5G technology, something that all the major carriers in the UK offer. 5G is available in many cities across the UK, but not everywhere. It’s estimated to currently cover around half of the country, and the expectation is that by 2028, it will have the entire country covered.
But what does this new 5G technology mean for gamers? How far can it improve the experience of mobile gaming? By all estimates, it’s something that could redefine the entire landscape.
From 4G to 5G
4G LTE provided a significant improvement over the preceding 3G, as it introduced the capability of handling high-definition video streaming. 4G was also the backbone of online gaming because it offered average speeds between 10–50 Mbps and more reliable connections. Theoretically, 4G can peak around 300 Mbps.
5G has taken speed much further because it averages 100 Mbps to 1Gbps and has a theoretical upper limit of a remarkable 1–20 Gbps, which is the difference between downloading a high-definition video game in seconds compared to minutes on 4G.
Low-latency is king
One of the first things people focus on when mobile cloud gaming is the speed of the connection. But the real unsung hero of improved connections is latency. Imagine visiting an online slots casino and, after browsing through hundreds of different titles and game styles, you find the one you want.
Modern casino sites operate from an HTML5 base, which means that big video slots have fantastic high-quality graphics and multiple features accessible from any web browser without dedicated plugins. All it needs is a good connection, and with 5G being the king of ultra-low latency, it makes it the unsung hero of the mobile gaming world.
But without a good connection, all of that would be a little redundant. Imagine jumping back into the days of 3G and trying to have a good experience on a modern casino site. After pressing the spin button on a slot, there’d be a pause before the wheel-spinning animations would activate, caused by the latency, or lag, which is essentially the delay in time between the action and getting a response from the server.
How much quicker?
For measuring latency, there is a range of 30–50 milliseconds (ms) available on a 4G network, which, of course, is pretty rapid in and of itself, and it has been something that a lot of players have used for years. But 5G brings a much lower latency of 5–10 ms on average, and can, theoretically, be as low as 1 ms.
This is crucial for the future of mobile gaming because it will slash the issue of the frustrating lag that everyone has experienced at one point. Gameplay will feel a lot more responsive, and for games where every split-second decision matters, this is going to be hugely impactful.
We are talking, of course, about MMORPG battlegrounds, where connected people fight against each other. Reaction times in such high-pressure arenas are the thin line between success and failure. Players want that immediate response when they get a shot away, or for movement when trying to duck for cover. 5G makes gaming happen with far fewer hitches.
Beyond the gameplay
Any improvement to the actual gameplay, in terms of reaction times and fluidity, is going to be a massive upgrade to the gaming experience. But there are other conveniences that faster technology brings to the table as well. Downloads of large game files are a lot quicker, as multi-gigabyte games can be downloaded in a fraction of the time that they would be on 4G. The same can be said of getting updates, which are often a frustrating barrier between wanting to play and doing so.
Joining the fun
5G networks also have a lot more capacity for handling traffic than 4G, which means that more devices can be connected per square kilometre. Currently, 4G can host around 10,000 connections per square kilometre, but carriers of 5G will raise that to 1 million. So, there’s less crowding and fewer limitations with the huge capacity improvement.
It is, therefore, going to be a lot easier to join in the fun without suffering any lag because the larger network can easily handle the greater demands. From a gameplay perspective, this is going to be impactful, especially for Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games. The greater capacity will mean that more players can join large-scale battle royales, without being concerned about the connection dropping or slowing down because the network has become congested.
From a more local point of view, a 5G connection at home means that a single household can handle a greater number of devices without any degradation in connection, speed, or latency. Because of the 5G benefits, it has created the space and scope for higher-quality graphics to be developed and used in games as well, and it will also help massively in the development of other formats of gaming, namely augmented and virtual reality.
These are still not quite where people would have expected the technology to be, but arguably, the presence of 5G networks now has the capability of unlocking the full potential of immersive, realistic experiences.
The right fit
5G also means that there is less emphasis on local storage and hardware because it can deliver greater amounts of data packets from the cloud. The streaming of games is the biggest beneficiary of 5G technology because, by its very nature, it relies on speed, stability, and minimal latency.
If the average mobile phone can receive 5G speeds, and the bulk of the graphics demands are handled by it, it’s going to cut down on the requirement for high-end hardware specs. This is important for the industry, taking mobile cloud gaming to the point where people can access the kind of high-quality games they would expect to find on a console.
