Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- South Korea's top telecom company, KT, unveiled a 5G game streaming service through its partnership with Ubitus, a Taiwan-based cloud gaming solutions provider, forming a three-way race to occupy an advantageous position in the world's fourth-largest gaming market which is ready for next-generation services using fast data connection and ultra-low latency characteristics.

KT said Friday that it would offer some 100 games on a monthly subscription basis officially in March next year after a two-month free service period. Users can play games stored on remote servers via 5G streaming. They can attach a mini joystick to smartphones to enhance the accuracy of game control without having to connect Bluetooth.

"In the game market, each game should be purchased at a high price and (users) also have to pay access fees," KT's 5G service vice president Sung Eun-mi said, adding KT's new service would be the first of its kind to provide free and unlimited streaming at reasonable prices.

The establishment of 5G networks in South Korea this year triggered a flurry of business cooperation in various industrial sectors while mobile carriers including KT, LG and SK Telecom (SKT) have tried to develop 5G edge cloud-based solutions for businesses and gaming.

Competition now grows in the emerging cloud gaming market, based on the fast data connection that allows users to seamlessly play games from anywhere at any time with low latency. The idea of cloud gaming or remote gaming has been around for over a decade, but its development gained traction recently thanks to the introduction of 5G.

LGU+ has agreed with NVIDIA, an American graphics technology company, to launch a 5G-based cloud gaming service in March next year. SKT has partnered with Microsoft to operate a 5G-based cloud gaming service "Project xCoud", an Xbox-based cloud gaming service, next year.








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