Gameye Reveals the Results of Real-World 5G Gaming Trial
Competitive, action-packed multiplayer games require a lot of computing power and low latency server locations to run smoothly. Gameye ensures a quality gaming experience for every player by providing high-performance session hosting for game developers – even in upcoming and hard to reach locations around the world.
As a leader in online multiplayer technology, Gameye always has its eyes on the future of multiplayer for the games we host.
5G wireless technology is currently rolling out around the world as a solution for both mobile and home internet. The proliferation of 5G networks in Europe will result in real change for multiplayer gaming. To prepare for the future of online multiplayer, Gameye partnered with Deutsche Telekom and MobilEdge X to conduct a small but true-to-life gaming-specific 5G trial to test the current and future potential of 5G for online gaming.
Method
The trial was designed to compare current 4G standards with upcoming 5G technology. For our trial it was important to test latency-sensitive games, so it was decided to use highly-competitive online shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and futuristic racing title Pacer – both demanding titles requiring fast response time and low latency, making them ideal for online multiplayer testing.
The test comprised of one server hosted in Frankfurt by one of our providers, Leaseweb, and another on a server in Dusseldorf hosted by the MobiledgeX team, intended to be simple and reflective of real-world conditions. A game server was started with a client to it, and the latency between the two was polled over a period of time in live gameplay sessions. The test also checked for packet loss and network disruption that could adversely affect performance.
Results
Using both the latency measuring tool WinMTR as well as Counter Strike: Global Offensive’s inbuilt network testing system for benchmarking, our results measured a lowest connection speed across the entire set of tests of 17ms. We anticipate latency for public users under the same conditions could drop to nearer 8-12ms as the 5G infrastructure rollout continues.
Our results further demonstrated extraordinary improvements to download speeds on 5G versus 4G. Gameye’s test measured download speeds of around 800MB/s, which could increase to over 1GB, depending on location, as the network rollout continues.
Conclusions
We conclude 5G network infrastructure will be hugely beneficial for demanding online multiplayer games and we anticipate gamers playing using 5G may become core users of Gameye’s systems over the coming five years.
5G is especially valuable for competitive mobile gameplay in titles like PUBG Mobile and Fortnite. Competition-level gaming anywhere and at any time should have great appeal to many gamers.
5G will find further value in homes. As next-generation consoles launch, the digital gaming market grows and game file sizes rise, gamers will demand more bandwidth from their home internet to accommodate large and frequent downloads or entire titles and live game updates.
Finally, a fully capable 5G network is of tremendous benefit to streaming services like GeForce Now and Google Stadia, meaning players could experience 4K gameplay on their mobile devices while on the move, with improved latency and gameplay closer to the full home console/PC experience demanded by gaming purists.