If you attended the Mobile World Convention (MWC) in Barcelona this week, we hope you spent some time at the Deutsche Telekom booth. Because there, visitors had a chance to experience the world’s first mobile edge mixed reality multiplayer game demo. The game is called Codename: Neon and showcases the ultra-low latency, Deutsche Telekom edge-enabled network.
A Game That Changes the Rules for Mixed Reality Mobile Games
Codename: Neon is the result of the collaboration between Niantic, Deutsche Telekom, MobiledgeX and Samsung. The game takes advantage of the capabilities of Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone, Galaxy S10+. This is the first edge-enhanced mixed reality multi-gamer experience, a pioneer for further tech developments.
The Vice-President of Strategic Partnership at Niantic, Omar Téllez, described the groundbreaking character of the game:
“The ultra low latency that mobile edge computing enables, allows us to create more immersive, exciting, and entertaining gameplay experiences. At Niantic, we’ve long celebrated adventures on foot with others, and with the advent of 5G networks and devices, people around the world will be able to experience those adventures faster and better.”
MobiledgeX: the Engine Behind the Game
Codename: Neon mixed reality game is running on the MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R1.0 solution. The most important features of the latest product of the edge computing company founded by Deutsche Telekom AG are:
- SDKs that are independent from device and platform,
- Distributed Matching Machine,
- Fully multi-tenant control plane.
The software platform developed by MobiledgeX offers improved performances for AR and MR experiences. Also, it facilitates compliance with local privacy regulations in video and image processing.
Speaking about their product, the President and CEO of MobiledgeX, Jason Hoffman, explained:
“MobiledgeX is enabling applications, devices, clouds, and networks to interact in new ways to create previously impossible experiences, and we are very excited to have Samsung with Galaxy S10+, Deutsche Telekom and Niantic using our first product release – MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R1.0. Today is the start of tomorrow’s next-generation ecosystem.”
Samsung Galaxy S10+, a Smartphone Built for Native Edge Connectivity
Samsung provides the hardware for enjoying the groundbreaking mixed reality game. The Korean company worked with Niantic, Deutsche Telekom and MobiledgeX to create a smartphone that is capable of dynamic access to the edge infrastructure. At the same time, the flagship interfaces with MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R1.0 to allow unmodified access to edge for augmented and mixed reality applications.
Samsung is determined to continue on the path of strategic collaborations with tech partners. They want to promote native edge device functionality as well as take advantage of the upcoming 5G technology.
The Future Shaped by AR/MR/VR Experiences
Interactive and immersive experiences are changing the world we live in, not only the gaming industry. From consumer to enterprise applications, from simple holographic demos to complex computer vision projects, mixed reality creates new work collaborative capacities. This means that key players (device manufacturers, telecom service providers) have to embrace this new trend and adapt their products and services to it.
