Gaming and 5G: MediaTek Reinventing the Network Experience

Spotlight on Gaming and 5G | TelecomDrive.com

Focusing its efforts on gaming, MediaTek is delivering  lot of innovations such as its flagship HyperEngine for 5G, enabling gamers to benefit from the low-latency 5G and Wi-Fi connections with intelligent multi-network balancing, attuned resource management that helps sustain FPS while maximizing battery life.

Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India interacts with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com about the company’s focus on delivering elevated 5G experience and how gaming is becoming an important 5G use case for customers.

Gaming is becoming a great use case to drive 5G experience for customers. How 5G will revolutionise smartphone usage and mobile gaming and what is MediaTek doing in this direction?

Gaming is one of the fastest-growing industries in India, registering 40% growth in 2019–20. With over 300 million users, Indian gaming industry has surpassed that of the U.S. in the recent period. The growth is primarily driven by the proliferation of cheaper mobile broadband in India. As per the current industry estimates, phone-based gaming apps account for 86% of total gaming apps in 2021.

With 5G deployment the gaming industry will enter the next phase of growth, driven by the superfast, low-latent mobile broadband. The industry will also witness rapid adoption of cloud gaming and eSports, which will accelerate the flow of investment to the sector. These developments will favour the market proliferation of 5G smartphones industry in India in the coming years.

With greater focus on gaming, MediaTek has enhanced its flagship HyperEngine for 5G, enabling gamers to benefit from the low-latency 5G and Wi-Fi connections with intelligent multi-network balancing, attuned resource management that helps sustain FPS while maximizing battery life, and new AI-based imaging enhancements to make use of MediaTek’s powerful APU.

How can technology companies take advantage of 5G and bring innovative 5G experience? How do you look at such developments as a technology enabler?

Look at the evolution that swept the telecom networks and see how they have helped the generations evolve over the past couple of decades. From 2G to 5G, we saw the dramatic pace of evolution in terms of technology and use cases – from voice to data, and now to a connected lifestyle, where everything from home appliances to vehicles and industrial robots to farmlands are controlled by a single smartphone. Chip is an integral part of these innovations. In fact, every new network technology brings a new set of requirements and with that a new set of use cases emerge. Thus, it is an opportunity for not only chip integrators but all associated companies like digital tech enablers, hardware/software firms, middleware integrators, and the like.  We have witnessed the emergence of several startups in recent years, and in the days ahead we will see more, especially in segments like gaming, metaverse, AI and IoT.

At MediaTek, we are prepared to address the market requirements arising from 5G innovations. Already we are associated with leading OEMs operating in India, providing them with the technology and hardware to enable them to bring the best devices to the market. As a unique approach to SoC development, we have opened our select Dimensity chip architectures to OEMs, especially those for cameras, displays, graphics, AI processing units, sensors, and connectivity sub-systems. These efforts will help foster further innovation and diversity in products.

How big is the 5G driven gaming market today? How fast is this growing?

Globally 5G gaming is gaining wider acceptance. Though there are no specific data pertaining to 5G gaming, a report revealed by OpenSignal in early 2021 found that 5G gaming experience is excellent in top 5 countries where 5G deployment is in full swing, and the rest of the countries where 5G is being deployed are also trailing with remarkable progress in 5G gaming experience.

In India, 5G smartphones have already made their entry, with many of them promising excellent 5G gaming experience. Analysts believe that gaming will be one of the most important applications of 5G in India, and with the latest trends like cloud gaming and metaverse, the growth will be faster. With 5G, we can also expect eSports to become mainstream in India. Already the market has witnessed major collaborations and investments from leading gaming companies, network operators and sports companies. Going by the estimates of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), India is estimated to have 650 million active gamers by 2025. Comparing this with the recent report from Ericsson that 5G will carry more than half of Internet traffic in India in five years, we see great market opportunity for 5G gaming in India. It also opens new revenue stream for operators, cloud companies and related technology vendors, so ultimately it is a win-win scenario for all stakeholders.

What is your roadmap on 5G Gaming innovations? What are the top features gamers look in smartphone?

MediaTek has realized the potential in mobile gaming long before. The Helio G series (with “G” for gaming) of SoCs was designed to address the gaming requirements in the 4G/LTE era. At the heart of these innovations was the HyperEngine technology which has a Networking Engine and a Resource Management Engine as its foundation.  HyperEngine is now enhanced with several features to support the requirements of gaming in 5G era.  The latest HyperEngine 5.0 can support lower-latency connections at 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz. It also comes with high-end UFS 3.1 storage and LPDDR5 memory that ensure ultra-fast data streams to accelerate apps, social feeds and faster FPS in games. With intelligent multi-network management, the technology ensures lower latency for smooth user experiences and maximized battery life. We have made the display more intelligent, with capabilities that automatically adjust the refresh rate to match the game frame rate detected, reducing power use to extend battery life.

The wish list of Gen Z gamers keep on expanding, so we expect more innovations to sweep smartphone arena in the near future, be it metaverse, AI or cloud gaming. This will necessitate further innovations, especially in areas like display, memory, connectivity and battery life. With regard to chip technologies, all these developments mean further innovation in terms of CPU, GPU, memory attributes and energy efficiency. This means MediaTek has to continue the journey as the world’s top chip innovator to bring incredible technologies to the market tailored for the incredible users.

What can we expect from MediaTek in the coming months? Tell us about your upcoming unique technologies, which will be available in the chipsets?

With innovation as its lifeblood, MediaTek has been driving enhancements across the entire gamut of technologies powering the smart devices of the century. In gaming, we are currently focusing on HyperEngine to further enhance the gaming output, in addition to building new capabilities around latest trends in cloud, raytracing, AI, metaverse, and more. One of the latest innovations, for example, MediaTek’s ray tracing SDK works with an effective denoising technology to remove irregularities and enhance visual quality. Raytracing is expected to be a major trend among flagship 5G smartphones in the coming months.

Additionally, we are aiming on innovations across key specs in smartphones including photography, video, processor speed and more. MediaTek's AI Super Resolution, for example, intelligently resizes video to match the display's native resolution.  Other major technologies on focus include WiFi 7, AIoT, Edge and other innovations across smart devices spanning home, automotive, and connectivity segments. In WiFi 7, Multi-Link Operation (MLO) is an important innovation that allows aggregation of multiple channels on different frequencies bands at the same time, negotiating seamless network traffic even if there is interference or congestion.

This interview is published as part of July 2022 issue of Disruptive Telecoms.