Latency Thresholds for Usability in Games: A Survey

User interactions in interactive applications are time critical operations; late response will degrade the experience. Sensitivity to delay does however vary greatly with between games. This paper surveys existing literature on the specifics of this limitation. We find a classification where games are grouped with others of roughly the same requirements. In addition we find some numbers on how long latency is acceptable. These numbers are however inconsistent between studies, indicating inconsistent methodology or insufficient classification of games and interactions. To improve classification, we suggest some changes. In general, research is too sparse to draw any strong or statistically significant conclusions. In some of the most time critical games, latency seems to degrade the experience at about 50 ms.

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