The gaming platform Steam enjoys worldwide popularity. Download data shows that even in Antarctica, gamers indulge in their hobby.
Note: The title image is a symbolic image and not of the gamer in Antarctica.
How does a Steam user get to the Arctic? This is what many players wondered when the global download statistics from Steam showed a single green activity point in Antarctica in March. On Reddit, they speculated it was bored scientists in one of the research stations – or penguins.
Our colleagues Vida Extra spoke with a gamer who is actually using Steam from Antarctica. As it turns out, it is not a penguin but 24-year-old Rodrigo Forneron, a student from Argentina.
Valheim is one of the games keeping Rodrigo Forneron entertained in the Arctic.
Gaming at sub-zero temperatures and endless days
What is the gamer doing in Antarctica? When he is not gaming, Forneron is a student of electrical engineering. He has been stationed at the Belgrano II research station for several months, about 1,300 km north of the South Pole.
As a scientific technician, Forneron is responsible for the maintenance and control routines of the instruments. The devices must operate reliably even in icy temperatures.
The conditions in Antarctica are quite harsh: Temperatures range from −2 °C to −54 °C, it is light for 4 months in summer, dark in winter – and something in between for the rest of the year. Forneron finds some variety in gaming.
The 24-year-old admits that he spends more time gaming on the base than usual. On average, it is about 2 hours a day.
Internet in Antarctica: “Sometimes you can watch a YouTube video”
And what is he gaming? As the student explains to Vida Extra, he brought already downloaded games on his laptop that he could play offline there. The internet connection is – unsurprisingly – rather poor and the usage is sometimes limited.
The lab has a bit more bandwidth due to data priority than the rest of the base. Internet access is complicated. There are days when it works and others when you can’t even send WhatsApp messages. And they try to limit the applications. Sometimes you can watch a YouTube video, but that’s about it,
Titles like Dark Souls, Fallout, The Witcher, Project Zomboid, and Valheim keep Forneron company in Antarctica. As the 24-year-old reports, he was even positively surprised when he plugged into the network and launched Steam online: It worked relatively well.
Online gaming, however, is taboo: “I haven’t tried it out of respect for the rest of the crew, but I really doubt you can do that.”
Thus, it seems unlikely that Forneron is solely responsible for the nearly 89 GB downloaded on Steam in the past 7 days. It appears that there are gamers at other research stations in Antarctica who merrily use their base’s precious bandwidth for gaming as well.
The 24-year-old also reports that he is the only Steam user at his base. However, a colleague has brought his Xbox Series X and uses the GamePass.
Could you imagine working under these conditions? And of course: Which games would you take for a multi-month trip to a research station in Antarctica? Let us know in the comments.
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