How 5G will revolutionize the future of esports and mobile gaming

[Editor’s Note: Smart Communications continues to champion the esports industry in the Philippines through its esports hub and now, 5G capabilities. Below is their press release.]

To say that gaming has come a long way from being regarded as a niche form of entertainment would be an understatement. 

RELIVE ACES5GRANTED. Acces5Granted brought together top musical acts who performed from two stages – one in Intramuros, Manila, and the other in Boracay Island in Aklan. Though hundreds of kilometers apart, Acces5Granted showed the artists collaborating and interacting with their peers seamlessly, made possible by the ultrafast speeds and ultra-low latency of Smart 5G.

According to 2020 statistics, of the 7.8 billion people in the world, an estimated 2.7 billion are gamers with a recent surge brought about by the global pandemic. 

Playing games have become a lifeline during the lockdown months for many people, providing a much-needed escape from the Groundhog Day of self-isolation.

Unlike movies, games provide a more interactive form of distraction – even if it’s just matching colored shapes in between remodeling your house or using blocks to craft your own world. 

Many games also kept people connected with friends, allowing them to visit each other’s virtual private islands, join them in raids to destroy enemy bases, enjoy a quick old-fashioned shoot-out, or vote unanimously to kick out the impostor. 

With the arrival of 5G, there’s never been a better time to be a gamer as gaming will be at the forefront of 5G-led innovation.

This next generation of wireless technology seems almost tailor-made for gamers, with its promise of faster speeds, and increased bandwidth capacity for mobile games. It could very well be the game-changer that will revolutionize the way we play in the next decade. 

5G can deliver up to ten times the speed of 4G but for serious mobile gamers, the bigger impact of 5G will come from its massively improved latency.

Latency is the time it takes data to travel from your device to another location, and this could mean the difference between virtual life or death in gaming. 5G latency could be as low as 1ms which means in-game action will be smoother than ever, with no lag between your input and the game’s response, even if you are on a mobile connection.

5G and esports

The demographics of gaming is also changing from a recreational pastime to a competitive sport. 

Today, esports has become the fastest growing form of entertainment in the world, not only in terms of revenue but also in viewership. 

Esports made its debut at the 2019 South East Asian Games as a medal event in a multi-sport competition and was sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee.  The arrival of 5G will potentially benefit esports both for the professional athletes as well as for its audiences. 

A few months ago, Smart Communications opened its first 5G-enabled esports hub in the Philippines where the top 5G speeds reached 1Gbps. An inaugural esports match was held between Omega professional esports team playing DoTA 2 on Smart 5G-certified smartphones, versus Team LuponWxC using their gaming PCs. The matchup showcased the speed of Smart’s 5G network and low latency to play high-performance online games, proving that cloud gaming is possible on the mobile network.

5G availability will level the playing field and provide more opportunities for aspiring esports athletes as they train on a faster and reliable connection that will put their skills and not just their gear to the test. 

Video game streamers, on the other hand, will be able to upload their content at HD or even 4K resolution and for the fans, the availability of high-definition video streaming on-the-go will allow them to watch tournaments or follow their favorite streamers, wherever they are.   

5G Cloud Gaming

Considered as one of the last frontiers of consumer cloud services, companies have been attempting to go the way of Netflix and Spotify by bringing video games to the cloud – and 5G can make that a reality.

Services like Google Stadia, Apple Arcade, and Xbox Game Pass all hope to do for games what Netflix did for TV and movies – offer a vast catalog of games for a monthly fee. 

Instead of being stored locally on the device, games will be run on cloud servers just like how movies are streamed. Since the game is stored on the cloud, gamers can play together on a shared server, using different devices, thus eliminating the need for a high-performance game PC or a game console.

This will make even higher-end gaming experiences more portable, or nomadic and allow gamers to play anywhere, at any time, on any screen. 

Discoverability is another big pain point for mobile app stores. With so many titles available, finding a game you really want to play and invest time in can be intimidating if not overwhelming.

Another benefit of 5G gaming is the ability to instantly play games so you don’t have to waste time and data downloading and installing an app just to try it out. What makes this different from what we have now is that you would be able to play the full game right away and it won’t just be some playable ad that is sometimes misleading.

Making games more realistic

When Pokemon GO! first came out, people were in awe of its gameplay. It brought augmented reality to a mass audience and sent people out of their homes hunting for Pokemon in the parks, malls, and just about everywhere they could get a signal, making it a truly mobile gaming experience. 

But Pokemon Go! and other similar titles only offer the simplest use of AR technology – which is tapping into your phone’s camera and overlaying in-game characters onto a feed of the real world. Most of the time, people even turn off AR because it doesn’t really add much to the gameplay and only drains their battery faster.

5G’s near-zero lag time is the key that will unlock AR and virtual reality (VR) gaming as these game formats require speed and low latency to create an immersive experience that’s virtually indistinguishable from reality. 5G could also be the tool AR and VR developers need to make the transition to wearable devices such as dedicated headsets or glasses instead of just being apps on phones. 

Remember the haptic suits merged with advanced VR capabilities from Ready Player One? 

In the long term, 5G will unleash a new dimension to gameplay: touch and feel translating into the definitive gameplay experience. 

Esports organizers have already incorporated AR and VR in their live events. Given the global scale of esports tournaments today, event organizers have upped the ante for production value at venues.

Besides allowing 4K live broadcasts, 5G will let venue organizers give fans a multi-sensory experience, both online and offline by adding more elements, making the viewing experience more interactive, streaming multiple feeds, selecting between views and overlays, enhancing live commentary, and even giving them a virtual front-row seat during the matches.

The gaming industry has evolved and will continue to do so, becoming more interactive, social, and real-time. But with the coming of 5G, the focus will not only be on the games but also on the wireless networks that will deliver the best experience. 

As 5G takes gaming outside and on the road, selecting the right mobile network will be as important as choosing a device.

A leader in 5G

At the forefront of the 5G Revolution in the country is mobile services provider Smart Communications, recognized as the fastest mobile internet provider in the Philippines by third-party mobile internet analytics firms such as Ookla and Opensignal.

Smart’s 5G rollout complements the mobile services provider’s extensive 4G/LTE and 3G network in the country with an increasing number of 5G sites now up in Metro Manila, as well as key cities in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

In Luzon, you can experience 5G speeds at the Makati Central Business District (CBD), Bonifacio Global City CBD, Araneta City, Mall of Asia Bay Area, North Avenue in Quezon City, Taft Avenue in Manila, Ortigas CBD, EDSA, New Clark City in Pampanga, and in strategic locations in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and the cities of Manila, Quezon City, Makati, Taguig, Pasig, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Parañaque, Valenzuela, Caloocan, Navotas, San Juan, and Pasay.

 In Visayas, 5G sites are up in Boracay, Cebu, Iloilo and Davao in Mindanao.

Ookla, the global leader in internet testing and analysis, named Smart as the country’s fastest mobile data network in the first half of 2020 after it achieved a Speed Score™ of 18.33, with average speeds of 15.94 Mbps for download and 7.57 Mbps for upload for its LTE network, based on 2,810,963 user-initiated tests taken with Speedtest®.

On the other hand, Opensignal, an independent mobile analytics firm, reported in its November 2020 Mobile Network Experience Report* for the Philippines that Smart remained ahead of the competition in terms of Video Experience, Upload and Download Speed Experience, 4G Availability, and 4G Coverage Experience. 

For more details about Smart 5G visit 5G.Smart. – Rappler.com

*Opensignal Awards – Philippines: Mobile Network Experience Report November 2020, based on independent analysis of mobile measurements recorded during the period July 1 – September 28, 2020 © 2020 Opensignal Limited.