Solution guide: Migrating your dedicated game servers to Google Cloud Platform



One of the greatest challenges for game developers is to accurately predict how many players will attempt to get online at the game's launch. Over-estimate, and risk overspending on hardware or rental commitments. Under-estimate, and players leave in frustration, never to return. Google Cloud can help you mitigate this risk while giving you access to the latest cloud technologies. Per-minute billing and automatically applied sustained use discounts can take the pain out of up-front capital outlays or trying to play catch-up while your player base shrinks.

The advantages for handling spikey launch-day demand are clear, but Google Cloud Platform's extensive network of regions also puts servers near high-latency customers. Game studios no longer need to do an expensive datacenter buildout to offer a best-in-class game experience  just request Google Compute Engine resources where they're needed, when they're needed. With new regions coming online every year, you can add game servers near your players with a couple of clicks.

We recently published our "Dedicated Game Server Migration Guide" that outlines Google Cloud Platform’s (GCP) many advantages and differentiators for gaming workloads, and best practices for running these processes that we've learned working with leading studios and publishers. It covers the whole pipeline, from creating projects and getting your builds to the cloud, to distributing them to your VMs and running them, to deleting environments wholesale when they're no longer needed. Running game servers in Google Cloud has never been easier.