Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
LG Uplus to offer Nvidia's cloud gaming service on 5G
LG Uplus employees try Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud gaming service in this photo provided by the firm, Thursday. / Courtesy of LG Uplus
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
LG Uplus has partnered with U.S. tech firm Nvidia to offer the latter's cloud gaming service that will run on fifth-generation (5G) networks, the mobile carrier said Thursday.
The carrier said it signed an exclusive deal to provide Nvidia's “GeForce Now,” which will allow users to play hundreds of game titles on 5G-enabled smartphones, PCs and internet-connected TVs.
Nvidia has been offering a beta program of the service in the U.S. and Europe. While it has not officially been launched, it has garnered about 300,000 users and more than 1 million are waiting to be accepted into the program.
Nvidia is known for graphics chips that accelerate image processing, but the firm also has been working on putting those same chips inside servers in data centers so that users don't need to buy expensive gaming hardware to play games.
During a GPU Technology Conference, organized by Nvidia, in San Jose, Calif., CEO Jensen Huang said LG Uplus will become its first partner to use its cloud game servers.
LG Uplus said it will foster the cloud gaming service as a core part of its 5G plans.
“The GeForce Now service will be launched here in the first half of 2019 at the earliest,” an official of the firm said adding that the number of playable games will be 500 including popular PC games such as the survival shooting game "Fortnite" and five-on-five strategy game "League of Legends."
“The cloud gaming service will fit perfectly with 5G services that offer low latency,” said Lee Sang-min, chief of LG Uplus' future and convergence division. “With LG Uplus' 5G network technology and Nvidia's GPU cloud technology, we will offer a new way of playing games.”
LG Uplus added this is part of the firm's efforts to beef up its game content which will become essential in the 5G era.
The mobile carrier previously announced ties with cloud gaming service firm Hatch Entertainment during the Mobile World Congress in February. The firm will also collaborate with a subsidiary of Rovio Entertainment, the creator of the popular mobile game “Angry Birds,” to offer 5G-enabled virtual reality games here.