Unity have just launched a suite of new online services into beta today, as well as reorganizing existing online solutions under one common banner, Unity Gaming Services. Unity Gaming Services, or UGS, aim to provide end to end networking and business solutions for launching and running a multiplayer game. During the beta period, UGS is free and after launch it will have pay per use pricing along side a reasonable free tier.
Details of the launch from the press release:
SAN FRANCISCO, October 21, 2021 — Unity (NYSE: U), the world’s leading platform for creating and operating real-time 3D (RT3D) content, today announced the beta launch of Unity Gaming Services – a new platform experience that unifies Unity’s existing Operate Solutions for games and introduces new tools and services that simplify any developer’s ability to launch cross platform, multiplayer games.
With just a few clicks right from the Unity Editor, Unity Gaming Services instantly brings multiplayer games online through seamless integration with Unity Netcode and Transport. The platform also includes everything developers need for live game operations no matter their size, including providing them the ability to sync their game logic with Unity’s backend services without going through a heavy platform release process. With a single dashboard and visibility into all data streams, developers get a 360-degree view of their game’s performance and gain actionable insights in one place. Unity Gaming Services is free to start, and developers only pay as they scale with transparent pricing.
“Our mission is to enable success for our developers, who today are managing an increasingly complex new reality that needs to meet growing player demand for cross-platform multiplayer games and at the same time requires tremendous cloud networking expertise and presents technical and operational challenges far beyond game design itself,” said Ingrid Lestiyo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Operate Solutions, Unity. “With the growing player demand for cross-platform multiplayer games, Unity Gaming Services reduces the barrier to entry for developers to launch more multiplayer games that collectively will expand the size of the industry, and titles available for play.”
Unity Gaming Services, open to all developers for free during its beta period, is available immediately with support for Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, and Windows. Console support is currently on an invite-only basis, but will be made available soon. To sign-up, developers are asked to visit https://dashboard.unity3d.com/login.
Links of Interest:
- Unity Introduction Blog Post
- Unity Gaming Services
- Product Pricing
- NetCode for GameObjects GitHub
- Epic Games Competing Online Services
You can learn more about the launch of Unity Gaming Services in the video below.