By Shafiq Tripoli, Vice President and Head of Network Services Unit at Ericsson Middle East and Africa
In addition to its entertaining and enjoyable side, games have evolved to become an essential part of human life, due to their ability to enhance creativity, improve mental intelligence, and reduce stress. This journey began with arcade game halls in the seventies of the last century, and has evolved until now in a way that exceeded all we ever imagined. The scene has changed incredibly since the nineties, when online games appeared, up to the era of smartphones supported by third and fourth generation networks. Today’s video game experience is characterized by the integration of extended reality (virtual reality and augmented reality), pushing the boundaries further towards what was previously considered a stroke of imagination.
And we are not revealing a secret when we say that every stage of this development is complexly linked to communication capabilities. Now, with the emergence of the fifth generation network, we stand on the threshold of an unprecedented revolution in the world of games. Unlike previous network generations that limited the possibility of immersive gaming experiences due to speed and capacity limitations, the emergence of high-speed home networks and fifth-generation communication has completely shattered these barriers, heralding a new era in which multiplayer games can seamlessly connect friends and players around the world. All of this through their smartphones.
According to a report prepared by Grand View Research, the video game market is moving forward to reach 583.69 billion US dollars by 2030. This significant growth is linked to advanced gaming technologies that are radically reshaping the future of games. Fifth-generation technology leads this technological revolution, as it represents a transformative force that works to enhance gaming experiences and take them to unprecedented levels.
Great value for players
For consumers, the low response time of fifth-generation networks, high bandwidth, and increased data transfer rates contribute to reducing the delay time for multiplayer games over the Internet, making interactions between them much faster. This technology facilitates cloud gaming by supporting the live streaming of graphics-intensive games from the cloud, reducing reliance on having powerful local devices. Fifth-generation network capabilities also operate augmented and virtual reality games, where low response time and high data speeds contribute to providing more immersive experiences. Cloud games based on the fifth-generation network essentially help create an immersive and complete gaming environment that makes players feel like they are part of the game.
Business opportunities for service providers
Games also create great business opportunities for service providers, in collaboration with the broader gaming ecosystem. Fifth-generation network slicing adds additional performance control to ensure the best user experience, which many players desire, thus allowing service providers to offer distinguished offers to players, one of the ways service providers can achieve gains from the fifth-generation network. The expected increase in cloud gaming represents great potential for service providers, where they can provide many capabilities and generate income from them, such as network slicing and edge computing.
A report by Ericsson and inCode on fifth-generation cloud gaming expects a total increase in service revenues by 4% by the end of this decade, against the backdrop of adopting gaming slices between targeted gaming sectors.
Starting from our leading position in the field of fifth-generation technology, we are very proud to showcase our capabilities in cloud gaming supported by the standalone fifth-generation network with HADO, in collaboration with our partner stc play, at the LEAP conference in Saudi Arabia. This demo shows how the integration of the standalone fifth-generation network and cloud gaming on augmented reality devices, which involve collaboration and sometimes have high activity levels and three-dimensional accuracy, can meet the large network requirements.
It is worth mentioning that the fifth-generation network has the ability to revolutionize the gaming industry, as it provides a faster, more reliable infrastructure and lower response time to create more enjoyable and immersive gaming experiences. Thus, we are today in the era of fifth-generation cloud gaming, where all barriers are broken, and a future where games know no boundaries is shaped.
