How a global game publisher accelerates combat servers with Zenlayer
Gaming providers today are under rising pressure to provide seamless player experiences with minimal interruptions. But this isn’t always easy, especially in global emerging markets throughout places like Latin America where network infrastructure and connectivity tend to be underdeveloped and inconsistent.
Read on to learn how one global gaming provider uses Zenlayer to overcome performance issues and scale its services throughout South America and beyond.
Key takeaways:
· The client successfully reduced latency between game servers and players by 50% using Zenlayer’s premium network blend.
· Server failover time dropped from minutes to seconds by leveraging Zenlayer Global Accelerator’s intelligent load-balancing technology.
About the client
· Industry: Gaming
· Needs: Emerging market connectivity and last mile acceleration
· Zenlayer services used: IP Transit and Zenlayer Global Accelerator
The client is a leading global gaming publisher with a large portfolio of multiplayer titles, including world-leading games with high player counts.
The company’s player count in South America skyrocketed due to the rapid adoption of one of its multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) titles. It quickly became apparent that the client needed to provide players in South America’s emerging markets with the same level of gameplay and service as its players in more developed regions.
The challenge: Delivering consistently high-quality service across South America
Network infrastructure in South America tends to vary drastically in terms of quality and reliability. While heavily populated metropolitan areas tend to enjoy fast internet speeds, most areas still have limited access to high-speed internet service. This often leads to connectivity issues and disruptions during online gaming sessions.
In addition, the client had large geographical distances between its gaming servers in Brazil and other countries in South America. This created transmission delays and latency, negatively impacting gameplay for its users.
The client felt pressure to source from multiple providers and plan for substantial buildouts in order to provide consistent high-quality service across a wide region and compensate for inadequate local infrastructure. However, both options are costly and time-consuming.
The solution: Zenlayer’s premium network blend cuts latency in half
As a workaround, the client approached Zenlayer — a leading cloud compute and networking company with the world’s most hyperconnected cloud and a decade-long track record of helping multinational businesses successfully expand into emerging markets.
To combat latency and improve gameplay, the client opted for Zenlayer’s local IP Transit service which blends the best upstream carriers throughout South America to create a high-speed, ultra-reliable network.
This decision successfully reduced player-to-server latency by 50%. The client’s regional players now experience smoother, more responsive inputs and faster speeds when logging in, partnering up, and finding opponents for PVP matches.
Minimizing failover with Zenlayer Global Accelerator
Despite reducing latency, game stability still posed a problem for the company. This was due to its ever-growing player count, which was generating massive amounts of traffic and overloading its game servers in Brazil.
· The client had previously deployed core and edge combat servers in Brazil to serve local players and enhance game performance and stability.
· Core servers handle administrative tasks like account data and player logins, while edge combat servers host actual PVP combat.
As the company looked to better serve players in other countries throughout South America, it wanted to consolidate its resources to streamline operations and avoid deploying many edge combat servers throughout multiple countries.
Instead, the company deployed Zenlayer Global Accelerator, which is a network acceleration service that leverages Zenlayer’s massive global private network. Thanks to Zenlayer Global Accelerator, players across South America can connect with the client’s core servers in Brazil for logins, application updates, and in-game stores or marketplaces. From there, player gameplay traffic is load-balanced via Zenlayer-provided IP addresses and routed to the client’s edge combat servers using Zenlayer Global Accelerator’s intelligent routing algorithms.
Zenlayer’s network acceleration service also features an always-on, automated origin health check. This actively monitors the status of the origin servers to ensure optimal performance and load-balancing paths.
Using this technology, the client reduced network failover time from an average of minutes to seconds. If a server goes down, users will experience significantly shorter gameplay disruptions. Players may experience a slight stutter for a few seconds or no impact at all, as opposed to massive lag spikes that occur over several minutes or worse.
Looking forward: Improving global gaming experiences with Zenlayer
Based on its success, the client plans to continue using Zenlayer to improve gaming experiences for its players in other emerging markets where similar challenges are present. This will involve leveraging a combination of premium IP transit services and Zenlayer Global Accelerator.
With Zenlayer taking care of network stability and performance, the company is free to focus more of its efforts on developing its next big hit.
Is your company looking to expand its global footprint, improve user experiences, or accelerate applications or services? Talk to a Zenlayer solution expert today. And for instant provisioning, check out zenConsole which is our self-service platform that lets you deploy worldwide in minutes.
