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Tackling latency in next-gen gaming

Published

3 years ago

June 9, 2022

George Miller

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Mathieu Duperré, CEO at Edgegap

Anyone that’s played a video game online has almost certainly experienced some kind of lag and connectivity issues. Despite huge infrastructure advances in the last few decades, latency remains a constant thorn in the side of gamers and detracts from the real-time experience that’s expected today.

Delivering a consistent experience to gamers playing on different devices with varying connection speeds – many of which are separated by thousands of miles – is a complex challenge. Massively popular online games like Roblox and Fortnite are just two of the many games which have benefited from years of investment into infrastructure in order to support millions of concurrent players. As the below chart from SuperJoost shows, multiplayer and online gaming is becoming the preferred way to play games amongst the most active gaming demographic, with all the technical challenges that this creates.

Games which can be played seamlessly across mobile, PC and console (so-called cross-play games) are also pushing the limits of what current internet infrastructure can deliver. Add in a new generation of streaming cloud gaming services like Stadia, Blacknut Games and Amazon’s Luna – plus Microsoft’s Game Pass and Sony’s revamped PlayStation Plus service, and you can see how the promise of console-quality performance over a broadband connection risks overloading networks that were never designed for this level of gaming.

So how can game companies, telcos and ISPs deliver on the performance promises being made to gamers? That’s where edge computing comes in.

Lag, latency and the Edge

When talking about latency it’s important to make it clear exactly what we mean. Latency refers to the amount of time it takes for game data to travel from one point to another. From the gamer’s perspective, it’s the delay between their command and seeing it happen in-game. How much latency a gamer experiences is dependent on the physical distance the data must cross through the multiple networks, routers and cables before it reaches its destination.

To use an extreme example, NASA’s Voyager 1 has made it about 14.5 billion miles from our planet so far, and it takes about 19 hours for its radio waves to reach us. Here on Earth, your latency is (hopefully) measured in milliseconds rather than hours; and gamers need around 30ms for the most optimal performance. Anywhere above 100ms can lead to noticeable lag and a frustrating experience.

This is where Edge computing comes in. As the name implies, Edge computing brings computation and data storage closer to the sources of data, placing it on the edge of the network where the performance gain is the greatest. As you’d expect, reducing unnecessary travel drastically speeds up the process providing an almost lag-free experience.

More players equals more chance for latency to be a problem

In the early days of gaming, local, couch play was part and parcel of the gaming experience. Today, a game where hundreds or even thousands of players are in the same session is nothing out of the ordinary, and there are Battle Royale games now, a whole genre of games where a hundred or more players are whittled down to a single winner.

The sheer scale of some online games dwarfs many of the most popular streaming services. Whilst Netflix remains the most successful streaming video site with 222 million subscribers, kids game Roblox has 230 million active accounts and Fortnite has over 350 million registered players. So if we assume these games reflect a growing trend, the demand on server networks is only going to increase, and gaming companies will have to look for more innovative solutions to continue meeting demand.

Cross-Platform

The ability for gamers on different devices and platforms to play and compete together is becoming an increasingly common feature of AAA multiplayer games like Apex Legends, Fornite and Call of Duty. EA Sports recently confirmed that FIFA 23 will be joining other heavy hitters in exploring cross-platform play. Considering the large amount of games on the market, and the various game modes for each game, studios are looking at crossplay to increase the amount of players who can play together. One of the main driver is to lower matchmaking time and prevent players from having to wait hours before opponents are ready to play with them.

From a latency perspective, different infrastructure across platforms means lag and downtime are far more likely. When it comes to cross-play, studios can’t use P2P (peer-to-peer) since console vendors don’t support direct communication (i.e. an Xbox can’t communicate directly with a playstation). On top of that, P2P may be limited by player’s home network (restrictive natting for example). That’s why studios typically use relays in a handful of centralised locations. Relays are seen as cheaper than authoritative server. They although have large flaws like making it harder for studios to prevent cheating, which is becoming more and more important with Web3 & NFT. This causes higherlatency since traffic needs to travel longer distances between players. For example, when Apex Legends went cross-platform, players were inundated with frame rate drops, lags and glitches.

Edge computing allows studios to deploy cross-play games as close as possible to their players, significantly reducing latency. Which can negate some of the delay issues around differing platforms.

VR and the Metaverse

Despite hitting shelves in 2016, VR is only now slowly making its way into mainstream gaming. Advances in technology have gradually improved the user experience, while also bringing the price of hardware down and closer to the mass market – not to mention the metaverse bringing renewed attention to the tech. But latency issues still present a serious hurdle to wider adoption unless it’s addressed.

Latency impacts the player experience far more in VR than in traditional gaming as it completely disrupts the intended immersive experience. A 2020 research paper found latency of over 30-35ms in VR, had a significant impact on players’ enjoyment and immersion, which was far lower than acceptable margins on a controller. But when it comes to the metaverse, achieving this might not be enough. Latency between headset and player has to be sub 5ms to prevent motion sickness.

In a recent blog, Meta’s VP, Dan Rabinovitsj, explained that cloud-based video games require a latency of around 75–150ms, while some AAA video games with high graphical demand require sub 35ms. Comparatively, Rabinovitsj suggests metaverse applications would need to reduce latency to low double or even single digits.

For better or worse, we’ve seen glimpses of what the metaverse has to offer already. Decentraland’s metaverse fashion week gave major brands like Dolce & Gabbana an opportunity to showcase virtual versions of their products. But attending journalists reported that the event was fraught with lag and glitches.

Gamers are a fickle bunch, so early adopters will simply move back to other games and platforms if they have poor initial experiences. Google’s Stadia promised to revolutionise gaming, but its fate was sealed at launch as the platform simply couldn’t compete with its competitors’ latency. Today, Google has ‘deprioritised’ the platform in favour of other projects.

If the metaverse goes to plan, it should encompass a lot more than traditional gaming experiences. But if it’s going to live up to players’ lofty expectations, akin to Ready Player One, more thought needs to be given to scalable and optimised infrastructure.

Unlocking next-gen gaming

The pace at which modern gaming is evolving is astounding, making the components discussed here work lag-free and as players expect will be a huge undertaking, and even more so when developers attempt to bring them all together in the metaverse.

The issue of latency may be less headline-grabbing than virtual fashion shows, NFTs and Mark Zuckerberg’s slightly unsettling promotional video, but the ability to seamlessly stitch all of these elements together will be critical in making the metaverse live up to expectations, and therefore, to its success.

Bone Appetit

INSPIRED LAUNCHES BONE APPÉTIT & GOLD SPINNER ACROSS ONLINE & MOBILE

Published

3 minutes ago

November 26, 2025

George Miller

inspired-launches-bone-appetit-&-gold-spinner-across-online-&-mobile

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Inspired Entertainment, Inc., a leading B2B provider of gaming content, systems, and solutions, is excited to announce the launch of Bone Appetit and Gold Spinner across the UK and Malta iGaming markets. Featuring striking visuals and thrilling gameplay, this pair of online and mobile slots has been designed to captivate players and drive strong performance for operators, further expanding Inspired’s growing iGaming portfolio of premium content.

Bone Appétit is a lively, pet-themed slot game played on 5X3 reels with 243 ways to win. Developed with a playful mix of pet-themed characters, the game offers an array of engaging features, including Bonus and Scatter symbols that unlock Free Spins, the Wheel Bonus, and progressive-style rewards.

The Wheel Bonus awards cash prizes and special features, while random appearances from a mischievous dog can trigger Big Wins or Bonus rounds. During Free Spins, cat chefs prepare a series of culinary upgrades, with the final payout determined by the quality of the dish they land, with higher-tiered dishes yielding the biggest rewards.

Players can enhance and customise their experience through Fortune Spins, Fortune Bet, and Bonus Buy options, or take risks with the Gamble feature for potentially larger prizes. Bone Appétit delivers an entertaining slot experience designed to appeal to a player’s appetite for light-hearted slots fun.

Gold Spinner is a high-energy 5×4 Ways Pays slot that blends dazzling gold-themed visuals and electrifying graphics with exciting gameplay. Designed for thrill-seeking players, the game revolves around a unique coin collect mechanic supported by two powerful bonus features that build anticipation and deliver potentially big rewards.

A pseudo-persistent coin pile collects coins from the first two reels, guaranteeing a coin drop when triggered. Coins landing on these reels activate a mini slot feature, awarding extra coins, multipliers, or boosts, all of which can carry into the Free Spins Bonus for even greater win potential.

As always, players can further tailor their experience through features such as Bonus Buy, which guarantees a Free Spins coin, Fortune Spins for streamlined play, and Fortune Bet for increased Free Spins frequency. With its combination of striking visuals, immersive mechanics, and adrenaline-fueled gameplay, Gold Spinner delivers a super-charged slot experience packed with winning opportunities.

Claire Osborne, Vice President of Interactive at Inspired Entertainment, said: “We are delighted to expand our iGaming portfolio with the launch of Bone Appétit and Gold Spinner, two fun titles that showcase the creativity and variety Inspired is known for. From the playful charm of Bone Appétit to the high-voltage thrills of Gold Spinner, both games deliver distinctive themes and engaging bonus features designed to entertain players and drive a strong performance for our operator partners.”

The post INSPIRED LAUNCHES BONE APPÉTIT & GOLD SPINNER ACROSS ONLINE & MOBILE appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Angel Gardzhev Product Owner at Sneaky Slots

Sneaky Slots drags players to the streets of Eastern Europe with its latest release, Gopnik

Published

3 minutes ago

November 26, 2025

George Miller

sneaky-slots-drags-players-to-the-streets-of-eastern-europe-with-its-latest-release,-gopnik

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Spit sunflower seed shells and take a walk with us to the rougher and tougher side of Europe with Sneaky Slots’ latest release Gopnik. Once you’re done squatting with the locals, get ready for our last release of 2025, Gods Go Pew Pew.

Reel Area

Gopnik plays out across a gritty 4-4-4-4-4 reel setup, where street smarts are the most important thing followed by babushka’s home-made cooking.

Two special symbols, Babushka and the Burner Phone, are like two peas in a pod that can deliver some unexpected neighbourhood drama.

Babushka acts as a Wild and substitutes for all paying symbols. When she lands, she marks 1 to 4 positions across the other reels. If a Gopnik symbol hits any marked spot, it awards an instant bet multiplier of up to 50x.
Burner Phone: RING RING! Ey brat, pick up! When this symbol drops on reel 5, it flips 2 to 4 random symbols into Wilds.

xNudge®

Fresh from the Nolimit streets, xNudge® rolls into Sneaky Slots for its debut.

The xNudge® Wild always nudges to become fully visible and substitutes for all paying symbols, increasing its win multiplier by 1 for every nudge. It can appear in the base game, Street Roll, and Super Street Roll (but never on the 1st or last reel), with up to 2 xNudge® Wilds landing per spin in the base game and Street Roll, and up to 4 in Super Street Roll.

Pick Your Bonus!

(Scratch Card Bonus Entry)?

Land 3 Bonus scatters to whip out a Scratch Card and try your luck. Matching symbols will trigger either Street Roll or Kiosk Raid Bonus games.

Hit the Super Bonus scatter on reels 4 and 5 alongside the Bonus scatters, and level up to the Super Scratch Card Bonus.

Keep an eye out for the Golden Car on the scratch card. Reveal this to win the filthy 6,666x Max Win.

Street Roll

Street Roll drops you onto the cardboard with 7 Free Spins and a boosted 6-reel setup. During this feature, Gopnik symbols on the 1st and last reel can land holding a dice token. If you manage to hit a Gopnik-with-dice on both ends, you’ll trigger the Cheeki Breeki Dice mini game, packed with multipliers also featuring xNudge.

Super Street Roll

Same rules as Street Roll apply, but if a win Multiplier is awarded from the Cheeki Breeki dice game it stays for the whole round and is stacked up with each new Multiplier awarded.

Cheeki Breeki Dice

Ey brat, come closer… got a game for you.

During Street Roll or Super Street Roll, the Cheeki Breeki Dice can hit the cardboard, and whatever those cubes show decides your fate. If the left die wins, you score a win multiplier for the current spin. If the right die wins, you get a burst of random Wilds. The value of the multiplier or the number of Wilds match whatever number landed on the winning die.

Land three pairs and you score a retrigger of 5 Free Spins. But hit the same pair three times in a row and boom, you unlock the Blyatiful Throw, awarding an instant prize based on the number rolled.

Kiosk Raid Spins

Kiosk Raid starts you off with 3 Spins, and only label symbols can drop. Every time a label lands, your spin count resets back to 3. Up top, the kiosk shelf flashes fresh bet multipliers each spin. Land a label right under one, and it grabs that multiplier and holds it till the end. Multipliers range from 1x all the way up to a fat 100x.

On every spin, the Kiosk Lady places bet multipliers across the top shelf of her stand. Each time you land a new label symbol below a Multiplier it will receive that Multiplier and hold it until the end of the bonus. And if the Kiosk Lady’s in a good mood (or just bored) she might toss in a modifier on the top row, giving a random label below a little upgrade.

Your total bet multiplier racks up above the grid as the labels stack their value. When the bonus ends, the Kiosk Lady whips out her trusty old calculator, probably older than Babushka, totals everything up, and hands over your payout with that classic “don’t bother me again” energy.

Upgrade – Upgrades Multiplier on a random label below it to a bigger value.
Double – Doubles value of a random label symbol below it.
Collect – Collects a random label below it and adds its value to the total bet Multiplier again.
Super Bonus – Gets you into Super Kiosk Raid.

Super Kiosk Spins

The same rules as in the normal Kiosk Raid apply here as well, but 2 more rows are unlocked. The first adds room for even more label symbols, while the new bottom row rolls out extra added values; from +1 all the way to +100, boosting every label stacked above it. This bottom row can also reveal exclusive Super modifiers, hitting entire vertical lines at once:

Upgrade All – bumps all multipliers in that column to a higher value.
Collect All – collects every label in that column and adds their total again.
Double All – doubles the value of all labels in that column.

Sneaky Buy

Can’t wait for the shop to open up on its own? Ey brat, no shame in cutting the line. You can directly purchase the game features through the Sneaky Buy menu!

Street Roll – You are guaranteed to enter the Street Roll Bonus.

Sneaky Boost

Sneaky Boost is activated for 2 times the base bet, where there is an increased chance of triggering the Bonus rounds. Landing 1 or 2 active Sneaky Symbols in a spin trigger a normal bonus feature.

Super Sneaky Boost can be activated for 5 times the base bet for an increased chance of triggering the Super Bonus feature. Landing 1 Super Sneaky symbol will trigger a normal Bonus and landing 2 Super Sneaky symbols will trigger a Super Bonus.

The Stats

Max Win: 6,666x

Volatility: Highly Volatile

Angel Gardzhev, Product Owner at Sneaky Slots, said: “We wanted to follow up Freak Show Revelation with something that hits even harder, and nothing hits quite like a proper Gopnik. The mechanics, the humour, the whole vibe came together in a way we’re incredibly proud of. Sit tight, brat… this is only the beginning.”

The post Sneaky Slots drags players to the streets of Eastern Europe with its latest release, Gopnik appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

10 Santa’s Reindeers

Push Gaming unwraps festive fun with 10 Santa’s Reindeers and Santa Hopper

Published

1 hour ago

November 26, 2025

George Miller

push-gaming-unwraps-festive-fun-with-10-santa’s-reindeers-and-santa-hopper

Reading Time: 2 minutes

B2B gaming supplier Push Gaming is spreading a double-dose of holiday cheer with the launch of 10 Santa’s Reindeers and Santa Hopper, two seasonal slots packed with excitement, charm, and immersive gameplay.

Leading the festive line-up is the latest Push Actions title, 10 Santa’s Reindeers, arriving in lobbies from 26th November. Inspired by Push’s hit game 10 Swords, this new release retains the popular scatter-pay mechanic while adding a fresh twist with Jackpot Reindeer symbols. These not only act as scatters but also grant instant prizes, offering players even more to aim for on each spin.

The true magic happens in the bonus game, where players unlock additional reel levels as they progress, boosting the chances of landing high-value Reindeer symbols and increasing win potential.

The base game provides the opportunity to enhance the gameplay once the bonus lands, thanks to the Push-Up Mods feature, which allows players to expand the reel set early, increasing their chances and ensuring a more powerful bonus round.

Arriving a week earlier on 19th November, Santa Hopper presents a more whimsical take. Set in a snowy wonderland, this charming slot offers light-hearted fun with the Santa and Jingle Drop features, both designed to keep gameplay unpredictable and engaging.

The latest addition to the Push Originals stable, it flexes its appeal to casual players with vibrant visuals, catchy mechanics, and lively pacing. Its approachable style and festive vibe make it an ideal choice for players looking for light-hearted entertainment with strong seasonal appeal.

George Fil, Director of Product Strategy at Push Gaming, said: “Christmas is always a special time in the slot world, and this year we wanted to offer something for everyone. 10 Santa’s Reindeers is packed with action and surprises, while Santa Hopper brings a more playful, unpredictable energy.

“Both are built to deliver that festive buzz players love, and we’re really excited to see them go live.”

The post Push Gaming unwraps festive fun with 10 Santa’s Reindeers and Santa Hopper appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.