We’ve got some great news to share with all of you building multiplayer experiences.
We’re excited to announce that Unity Matchmaker will soon support flexible integration with most major third-party game server hosting providers, including services like Multiplay by Rocket Science, AWS Gamelift, Azure PlayFab and Agones.
Why the Change? Opening Up to the Ecosystem
Our goal is simple: to empower you to choose the hosting provider that is the absolute best fit for your game’s unique requirements. We are consciously opening up the ecosystem to give you maximum flexibility and control over your deployment strategy, ensuring you can leverage the best services available in the market.
How It Works: Flexible Integration with Cloud Code
We’re designing this integration to be as flexible and powerful as possible. The core of this new feature will be an integration path utilizing Unity Cloud Code. This allows you, the developer, to integrate with the APIs of your chosen hosting provider, including customizing the flow where you need it. This means Matchmaker can communicate seamlessly with any service, orchestrating the server allocation process perfectly.
To help you get started quickly, we will be providing ready-to-use example integrations for several popular providers.
What About Existing Services?
Unity Relay and our Distributed Authority features will continue to work seamlessly with Matchmaker, giving you a full spectrum of networking options, from P2P/Relay connections to dedicated server deployments.
Prioritizing Your Game Clients
Backend infrastructure changes can be daunting. We are committed to making these changes in a way that minimizes the requirements on your game clients; for most developers who have integrated Multiplay through the SDK, integrating your server hosting with the Matchmaker will work with the existing Multiplayer SDKs without changes to the game client, ensuring a smooth and straightforward transition.
Unity’s Commitment to Multiplayer
While there have been changes in the ecosystem, including the wind down of direct support for Multiplay Game Server Hosting (which has been licensed to Rocket Science Group), Unity remains steadfast in its support for multiplayer game developers. We are committed to investing in our multiplayer services and netcode to provide a robust, reliable, and cutting-edge platform for building and scaling your connected games.
Stay tuned for more detailed documentation and integration guides coming soon!