Estimate cloud costs for hosting game server is a complex task for multiplayer games developers. Public cloud use this complexity to hide their true costs.

Amazon provides a tool to build an estimate, based on a few inputs. Those inputs are 1. which region do you want to use, 2. peak concurrent players, 3. how many players per session (i.e. match), 4. how many matches per server, 5. server size, idle buffer (how much unused capacity do you expect), 6. percentage of spot-instance (those low cost VM which can be turned off at any time), and 7.how much bandwidth each player needs.

US Ohio East is arguably one of the cheapest and largest region. Filling the information, the estimated price of $1,330 per month. Which seems cheap, right? For commercial release which needs to be available worldwide, you need between 6 to 10 regions for their game to ensure a good experience.

Updating the form, what was initially a $1,330 budget, ended up being a $3,713 monthly cost. A whopping 279% increase! 

Let’s understand why.

How much is AWS Gamelift?

AWS Gamelift Pricing varies based on region, instance type, and usage. The pricing calculator considers factors such as:

• Region selection (e.g., US East Ohio, London, Hong Kong)

• Peak concurrent players

• Players per session

• Matches per server

• Server size

• Idle buffer

• Spot instance percentage

• Bandwidth per player

Using the pricing calculator, estimates can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars per month, depending on the scenario.

US Ohio East, AWS's largest region and is one of the most budget-friendly. What's often overlooked is that each AWS region has its own pricing model - a crucial detail when estimating costs.

Using the studio's scenario, the numbers arrives to an estimated monthly cost of $1,330. But here's the catch: for a global commercial release, it would require 6-10 regions to ensure a seamless gaming experience.

The initial reaction is to say, "Easy, just divide $1,330 by 8 regions and call it a day." But, if you are curious and re-run the numbers, the answer isn’t so simple.

If you rerun the numbers, distributing the Ohio region's traffic across 8 strategic locations worldwide: namely two in the US, Canada, London, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Bahrain, and Sydney.

The result?

A whopping 279% increase, ballooning the estimated monthly cost to $3,713.

This exercise was a stark reminder that AWS Gamelift's pricing calculator can be deceiving, hiding the true costs of global deployment behind a single region estimate.

That is why solution like Edgegap’s orchestration is a game changer – it allows multiplayer game developers to deploy their game servers to all 615+ locations worldwide, and only pay when players play in these locations.

Allowing game studios to drastically reduce, between 40-60%, their overall cloud cost versus solutions like AWS Gamelift.

How does AWS Gamelift work?

AWS Gamelift provides a suite of tools and features to support game development, including:

• AWS Gamelift SDK: Integrates with popular game engines like Unreal Engine and Unity to simplify game development.

• AWS Gamelift CLI: Allows developers to manage game servers and fleets from the command line.

• AWS Gamelift API: Provides programmatic access to Gamelift features.

• Game Server Management: Automates game server deployment, scaling, and management.

• AWS Gamelift Terraform: Automates infrastructure deployment and management.

• Reserved Instances: Provides discounted pricing for committed usage.

• Spot Instances: Offers lower cost, flexible instances for non-critical workloads.

Gamelift supports deployment in multiple AWS regions for players worldwide.

Why use AWS Gamelift?

AWS Gamelift, while it only recently added container instances, offers the benefits of orchestration, including:

• Scalability: Automatically scales game servers to meet player demand.

• Performance: Optimizes game performance with low-latency and high-throughput servers.

• Cost-Effectiveness: Provides cost-efficient pricing models, including spot instances and reserved instances.

• Security: Ensures secure game server deployment and management.

• Integration: Supports popular game engines and integrates with other AWS services.

Is AWS Gamelift orchestration better than Container-based Orchestration?

In short, no.

So much so that AWS Gamelift recently added containers to it's solution, albeit with massive contraints.

Still, here are the reasons why AWS Gamelift orchestration isn't ideal for game studios looking to lower latency, scale game servers faster and lower their DevOps workload.

• While AWS Gamelift offers streamlined game server management, its orchestration capabilities fall short when compared to container-based solutions. Container instances, such as Kubernetes, provide greater flexibility, scalability, and control.

• Gamelift's proprietary orchestration limits customization and forces developers into a rigid framework. In contrast, container-based solutions enable developers to define their own orchestration logic, leverage existing containerized applications, and integrate with a broader ecosystem of tools and services.

• For developers seeking fine-grained control over their game server infrastructure, container instances are likely a better choice.

For more information on the benefits of container-based orchestration, watch Michal Buras (Lead Network Engineer at Highwire Games) conference on the comparison between AWS and container-based orchestration like Edgegap's.