SK Telecom: ‘5G cloud gaming will shift the paradigm in the video game industry’
In September, SK Telecom was named Microsoft’s “exclusive operating partner” for its cloud gaming service, xCloud, in Korea, which established a partnership to deliver the streaming service to South Korea over the mobile operator’s 5G network, which promises to deliver the low latency and high-speed connectivity required for cloud gaming, and also meet high data demands from gaming platform subscribers. Now, the parties are expanding the partnership, inviting more players to join and increasing the number of titles available to play increasing to 85.
Because Microsoft is particularly interested in trialing phone-based versions of xCloud, the decision to work in the South Korean gaming market is a good one. South Korea is the fourth-largest mobile game market in the world, spending a total of $5.6 billion on mobile games in 2018, according to market research firm Newzoo, positioning the country as a key market for cloud-based gaming, which is being hailed a killer use case for 5G.
In fact, since initiating Project xCloud Preview, Microsoft has report that participants in Korea are, on average, spending 1.75 times more time gaming and three times more revisiting than participants in the United States and United Kingdom.
“Our partnership with SK Telecom has played a valuable role in helping Microsoft reach new, mobile-first gamers while also learning more about delivering high-quality game streaming through 5G networks,” said Kareem Choudhry, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Project xCloud. “As we enter the next phase of our preview in Korea, it is critical for us to have a strong partnership with a respected company like SK Telecom to push the technology forward.”
Jeon Jin-soo, vice president and head of 5GX service business division of SK Telecom, said the telecom is confident that 5G cloud gaming “will shift the paradigm in the video game industry.”
Currently, xCloud’s preview available only to testers in the United Kingdom, United States and South Korea, but there are plans for further roll outs in other counties including Japan, Western Europe, India and Canada later this year.
The decision to expand the preview seems to suggest that the gaming trial is going well for SK Telecom and Microsoft, which is significant as cloud gaming competitors like Google’s Stadia struggle to make a good impression following a somewhat muted and disappointing launch last November.
