Cloud Core Cost Estimation Factors

• Player Concurrency Patterns: Your player count directly drives server costs. Analyze peak hours, weekend spikes, and seasonal variations from similar games or beta data. Edgegap's pay-per-minute model means you only pay during active gameplay sessions, not idle server time.

• Session Duration Analysis: Longer sessions increase per-player costs but improve cost efficiency. Calculate average session length multiplied by peak concurrent users. Edgegap scales to 40 deployments per second reaching 14M CCU in 60 minutes, handling sudden player influxes without cost surprises.

• Geographic Distribution: Global players require servers across multiple regions, which traditional cloud will price at higher premium than their base location in North America and Europe. Alternatively, Edgegap's 615-location regionless network provides consistent pricing worldwide with one price worldwide, eliminating the complex regional cost calculations needed with traditional providers.

Pricing Model Comparison

Fixed vs. Variable Costs Traditional cloud providers charge fixed monthly rates regardless of usage. This creates waste during low-traffic periods and capacity limits during peaks. Pay-per-minute models eliminate both issues.

Hidden Fees and Overages Watch for bandwidth charges, storage fees, and scaling penalties. Edgegap includes DDoS protection and anti-cheat features without additional costs, preventing surprise billing.

Practical Estimation Steps

Start with conservative player estimates and multiply by expected session hours. Factor in 20-30% overhead for unexpected growth. Since Unreal Engine lacks built-in server hosting, third-party costs are unavoidable.

Use Edgegap's Plugin Advantage The faster alternative is Edgegap's plugin for Unreal game servers. It allows you to add multiplayer functionality and make any Unreal game playable for free during development, letting you test cost models before launch.

Monitor and Adjust Real usage patterns often differ from estimates. Choose platforms with detailed usage analytics and flexible scaling to optimize costs post-launch.

Effective cost prediction requires understanding your player behavior and choosing transparent pricing models that scale with success rather than penalize it.