South Africa’s mobile networks are rapidly rolling out 5G networks, offering the promise of higher speed connectivity and less network latency. 5G is the successor to 4G/LTE, offering a dramatic jump in peak data speeds, along with improved reliability and massive network capacity. This is big news for mobile gamers, because what is the use in investing in a high-end smartphone for gaming if the networks simply can’t keep up?
Here are four ways that 5G promises to enhance your mobile gaming experience. All you need is a 5G smartphone and you’re ready to roll!
Quicker downloads
5G networks are quick, with real-world speeds that can easily surpass 200Mpbs. When you use 5G, your content will download in a matter of minutes. You’ll spend much less time waiting for games, patches, and updates to download and more time immersed in the action. With this new technology, hunting for WiFi to download a game you want to try could become a thing of the past. This means big things for the future of mobile gaming.
Lag-free multiplayer
Every multiplayer gamer hates lag — the delay you experience between pulling the virtual trigger when playing a game like PUBG and seeing your character take the shot at your opponent. It’s incredibly frustrating to die or miss because of a lagging connection.
Lag comes from high latency, which remains a problem with older mobile network technology. Latency is the delay between sending a packet of data from your device, it arriving at a server or another device, and the response coming back to you.
With 5G, latency compares favourably to a fibre connection. That means you can enjoy smooth multiplayer games wherever you are. If you lose a match in a twitchy shooter, it will not be because your network connection let you down.
Gaming in the cloud
Game streaming is taking off faster than anyone imagined with services like Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming. You pay a subscription fee to get access to cloud-based gaming services and enjoy access to a wide range of high-quality titles. Think of it as Netflix or Spotify, but for games.
You don’t need to download every game to your smartphone but can simply stream it. Depending on which device you are using, you can enjoy a console-quality title in high-definition or even 4K. It means you can enjoy triple-A blockbuster games wherever you are.
With the cloud hosting your games, you can concentrate on improving your gaming experience with the latest gaming accessories, rather than stressing about your connection.
Richer game worlds
When games are streamed from a data centre in the cloud, they are liberated from the constraints of the processor and storage on your smartphone. Developers will be able to create more impressive graphics and physics, more detailed game worlds, and smarter artificial intelligence.
Further down the line, developers will be able to harness the power of the cloud to create deeply immerse augmented and virtual reality experiences and stream them straight to your mobile device. This trend is just in its early stages, but the pace of innovation is exciting.
