5G rollout is happening at an aggressive pace in India. New digital trends are expected to emerge as 5G becomes a common and wide-spread network technology in the country. One use case of 5G that has been identified for the consumers is cloud gaming. Now cloud gaming could also happen with 4G, but in India, the 4G networks weren’t powerful enough and there wasn’t enough capacity due to higher density of users to carry out cloud gaming in an efficient manner. Thus, 5G is what the telcos would leverage to market and monetise cloud gaming. Sudhir Kunder, Country Director, DE-CIX, the largest internet exchange company in the world, sat down with TelecomTalk for a chat and discussed about cloud gaming with respect to 5G roll out. Take a look at the conversation below.
How Will Cloud Gaming Grow Once 5G Arrives?
Sudhir said that the consumer availability at a monetisable standpoint will be far more openly available now with the adoption of 5G. A lot of companies which are already here in India but have not been able to see the kind of implosion of customers coming in might see a fresh positive change as well. Sudhir said that he is sure, seven out of 10 people, if asked a random question, they wouldn’t even know that they can play games on Netflix today. While Netflix is typically seen as a platform to watch regional content and international content, there’s also a gaming element to it. Cloud gaming will take its time to grow, as what happens with any new serivce when it comes to India, said Sudhir. Indian telcos have already showcased cloug gaming at multiple instances now. The first to showcase it in India was Vodafone Idea (Vi) at a media event back in November 2021. It would be interesting to see how many consumers would opt for cloud gaming. It would also be worth observing how the telcos offer it to consumers.
