LIVE FROM HUAWEI GLOBAL MBB FORUM 2019, ZURICH: Juhani Honkala, founder and CEO of Hatch Entertainment (pictured), hailed 5G’s potential to revolutionise the gaming industry, tipping it to further accelerate growth in the mobile segment.

Honkala said 5G will bring a raft of changes to mobile gaming, enabling better multiplayer experiences, seamless play across devices and sessions, and making e-sports accessible to a broader audience.

The technology will also make the game development process easier by pushing it to the cloud, freeing developers from on-device storage limits and eliminating the need to tailor to different operating systems.

But, perhaps the most important step forward from a business perspective will be the introduction of instant play capabilities, which Honkala believes will boost user acquisition and make it more cost effective. With 5G, users will be able to enter games directly rather than having to find a title, install it and sign up, he said.

“In every step you are losing people. Only few people actually go through the whole funnel. Cloud gaming fully transforms this with friction-free user acquisition…there’s no waiting anymore”.

He also dubbed gaming a “hero service” for 5G, noting it provides operators a means of engaging with customers around the technology.