End of services?

Multiplayer & Networking
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1

Hi,
I just received a mail about an ending of multiplay game server hosting service (see bellow)

Is this information true ?
If it is it’s seem a quite short notice for an end of service

If yes, when can we expect to have all the pricing information + ability to migrate our and test code base with this new services?

(all links have unvalid certificate, that’s why I am suspicious)

To focus our roadmap on core multiplayer services, we are winding down our direct support for the Unity Multiplay Game Server Hosting Service. To ensure continuity for live titles, we are licensing our Multiplay Game Server Hosting software to Rocket Science Group. Learn more about them here.

Unity will support the Multiplay Game Server Hosting Service through March 31, 2026, giving you time to choose and complete your transition path - either migrating your server setup to Multiplay by Rocket Science or evaluating alternative providers.

Key Facts
Unity is beginning a phased exit from the Multiplay Game Server Hosting service. We are working with Rocket Science Group on a transition path for existing customers.
Unity will operate the service through March 31, 2026. You must choose and complete a transition path before this date.
Support: For live games, our team will proactively reach out to coordinate transition plans and zero/low‑downtime cutovers. You can also contact support here. Named escalation paths and response‑time expectations will be provided.

Please contact our support team with any questions.

What is Multiplay Game Server Hosting Service?
Multiplay is a comprehensive hosting service that includes server orchestration, infrastructure, and support services

When are these changes taking place?
Unity is beginning a phased exit from the Multiplay Game Server Hosting Service. Unity will operate the service through March 31. You must choose and complete a transition path before this date.

What is being done to help customers who are affected?
Unity is working to assist customers in minimizing disruption, allowing teams to find a transition path until March 31, 2026. We are working with Rocket Science Group to help ensure there is a transition path for existing customers.

What is Rocket Science Group, and have they agreed to take over this service?
Rocket Science Group is a team of veteran game developers with deep experience in multiplayer game development and the Multiplay platform. We are licensing our Multiplay Game Server Hosting software to Rocket Science Group to minimize disruption of service for live games on the platform. Learn more here.

Will Multiplay continue to be supported in older versions of Unity?
Regardless of your Editor version, Unity will only operate the service through March 31, 2026. You must choose and complete a transition path before this date. In Unity 6.3 LTS, all built-in Multiplay Game Server Hosting features have been removed. Please note that Unity 6.2 support ends with Unity 6.3 LTS release. Unity 6.0 LTS still includes some built-in Multiplay Game Server Hosting features, and these will be phased out in future Unity 6.0 patch updates.

How can affected customers contact support for direct assistance with this transition?
Please file a support ticket here, and our team will be happy to assist you. For customers working directly with a Unity rep, your account management team will also be reaching out directly to work with you.

Are any other Multiplayer services impacted?
No. The rest of the Multiplayer services, such as Matchmaker, Relay, Lobby, and Distributed Authority, are unaffected.

What transition path do I have?
For live games, Unity will contact you directly with the next steps. For projects currently in development or testing the service, additional technical guidance will be shared soon.

2

Hi @Zeldarck,

Yes, the email you have received is legitimate.

Please reach out to Rocket Science Group through the contact form on the bottom of their website to inquire about pricing: Rocket Science Group

Please file a support ticket here, and our team will be happy to assist you.

3

Ok, thanks for the answer and the links

4

If you’re looking for another simple and quick alternative, check Edgegap.

5

This is shocking, but then again not really. I sure hope they don’t kill the rest of their backend services (Authentication/Economy/CloudSave/CloudCode). A game can’t recover from that since all players will leave if they lose their accounts.

Their reasons for axing these things is due to developer adoption, but the reason developer adoption is low is because we’ve been burned by Unity too many times. Please do not kill your backend services–we will never trust anything new from your guys ever again. We would have to cancel our game that we spent years developing.

6

Edgegap for the win (the fastest most reliable option out there).

  • you’ll thank me later!
7

Do you know if edgegap work easily with unity matchemaker service?

8

If you’re looking for scaling and orchestration that willl work with any matchmaker try Gameye (gameye.com).

Full disclosure: I work for them so obviously a biased source.

9

pretty sure you can. if not, edgegap have a matchmaker you can use for free.

10

I stand corrected, apparently unity matchmaker only supports multiplay. so how this will work is quite unclear…

11

I’m thinking to use UGS…
Or should I just use Playfab or firebase?

12

I did go with UGS for the simplicity as a really small team.
And this sudden stop of services of multiplay hosting without a proper way to already migrate to another system yet make me wonder if I should move all my networking infrastructure to an other system while adapting to this changement.
Because now nothing can ensure me they will continue the support of relay, matchmaking, etc in the future.

13

Only Multiplay Hosting is impacted, our other Multiplayer Services are not affected by this change.


Unity Matchmaker currently supports Multiplay hosting or a client-hosted solution provided by Unity (Relay and Distributed Authority). The team is working on extending support to third-party hosting providers and are aiming to deliver that in advance of March 31st. Matchmaker will also continue to work with Multiplay by Rocket Science.

14

I hope not. It doesn’t give us much confidence that you guys won’t just suddenly terminate it since it’s fairly new. If you guys keep killing things before allowing developers to trust you guys, you will soon find that no one will waste their time with your products/services. Other companies give 2 years to migrate. A one-man army or small indie teams can’t just create a solution in a few months.

That would be great, but is there a way to adopt it for self-hosted solutions or AWS?

15

That’s not what they are referring to.

My biggest fear as a developer is that this story repeats with your other services, services we rely on to keep our businesses running.

I have implemented your services into my game, Cloud Save and Authentication, if you randomly announce that those services are shutting down, moving or anything that makes my player data or player accounts are inaccessible that would cause a huge backlash from my audience and destroy my userbase.

Our livelihoods are on the line and we rely on you to keep these services running, if you randomly change your mind on supporting services we rely on, we will face the consequences.

I know you will say “this only affects Multiplay” and it does for today, but we don’t know if this story will repeat with any of your services tomorrow.

We don’t have any assurances that you will stick with these services in the long run when we need them to and this announcement does not instill confidence.

17

Exactly! It’s not like with a game engine where you can just stick to an old version for years (or indefinitely). With services (UGS), your game will be turned off and there’s no way around that.

Adoption for new stuff will be low forever if you keep killing them before giving time for us to trust you guys. It will be a self fulfilling prophecy. Developers are taking a huge risk by using your services knowing your history.

18

I use Edgegap and confirm it’s awesome for match making and multiplayer, and you only pay for actual server’s that are hosting active games, no monthly fees!

19

There is no reason to believe that they would shut down other services. Dedicated server hosting is whole other beast and way more expensive to maintain compared to the rest of their services which are basically just web services with APIs to access them.

They also gave multiple months time to migrate and a direct migration option since they licensed Multiplay to another company for them to keep running it. We can stop it with acting like this is the end of times. Third party services are under no obligation to run forever/as long as you the individual user needs them to. Always have a back up plan.

20

This transition path is brutal. Ending services without any docs with the Rocket Science Group readily avaliable?

“additional technical guidance will be shared soon”

This should have been ready and provided before services are winded down

21

Yes this is distressing. I advised my company to use multiplay because it’s so fast to get up and running. We are also using several other unity services for this reason. Now I’m second guessing this decision. Our small team spent a month getting Multiplay Working, and now we have less than 2.5 months left without any information on how to migrate, or whether pricing will change.

Basically my only option is to immediately move providers now, and waste another month of dev time.

Furthermore, not even keeping the packages in 6.3 means we can’t even develop our game on the latest LTS!

3 months is not long enough for small studios to adapt to a big change like this. I’m really considering moving my other services away from UGS now.