GAME DELIVERY SOLUTIONS BRIEF

GAME DELIVERY SOLUTION BRIEFPLAYER-CENTRIC INNOVATION FOR GAME DELIVERY

AMERICAS

New Performance Standards in Online Gaming

By 2020, it’s estimated that players will download 140 EB of games.1 Last year Akamai delivered more than 55 Exabytes of download-related traffic, including more than 875 million games to players around the world!2 Removing friction from the download experience can lead to more engagement from players. For example, one game publisher found that a 30% improvement in download speeds resulted in a 10% increase in day-one activations.3 We studied player sentiment, and found that 69% complained about long loading times impacting their enjoyment of the game.4

EAGER FANS ARE THE LOUDEST CRITICS

Success on day one is vital. Growing audiences can be demanding and unpredictable, which sometimes results in sudden spikes in demand during game launch events or when a game goes viral unexpectedly.

Game publishers must be able to handle the spike in demand while meeting the expectations

of players, or suffer the fallout of countless bad player experiences in the forms of negative reviews and a damaging brand perception. An effective content distribution and download strategy is a key factor in maximizing player acquisition, retention and monetization.

Download speeds can either drive or drown your gamers.

GAME DELIVERY SOLUTIONS BRIEF

“MUST-HAVE” CAPABILITIES FOR SEAMLESS GAME DELIVERYThere are many decisions to make when designing a game delivery solution, but Akamai has identified four “must-haves” that are critical to success.

RobustStorage

Reliable,Secure, Scalable

Delivery

Expert Services and

Support

Insight andReporting

MUST-HAVECAPABILITIES

FOR GAMEDELIVERY

Players want the game, and they want the updates, but they don’t want the wait.

GAME DELIVERY SOLUTIONS BRIEF

GLOBALLYDISTRIBUTED

NETWORK

FLEXIBILITYIN UPLOAD

SCALABLEINFRASTRUCTURE

DISPERSEDREPLICATION

RELIABILITY AND AVAILABILITY

BE GAME-READY WITH AKAMAI, THE TRUSTED LEADER IN ONLINE GAME DELIVERY

1. Robust Storage

Delivering quality at scale begins with a robust storage solution. Developers and publishers should look for a high-performance, globally distributed, cloud storage solution that caches content as close to their players as possible.

Akamai’s NetStorage solution meets all of the above with more distributed cloud storage locations globally than any other provider on the market. Delivering content from as close to the edge as possible rather than a single origin is the most effective way to maximize performance and scalability.

Akamai’s NetStorage helps to ensure your content is always available, and never goes down. Automatic content replication provides resiliency regardless of regional power outages, bandwidth congestion, or natural disasters.

A SUPERIOR CLOUD-BASED DELIVERY SOLUTION DEMANDS CONTENT STORAGE THAT MEETS THESE FIVE KEY CRITERIA:A SUPERIOR CLOUD-BASED DELIVERY SOLUTION DEMANDS CONTENT STORAGE THAT MEETS THESE FIVE KEY CRITERIA:

“Because of Akamai’s global presence and unique download acceleration capabilities our players can quickly immerse themselves in the game experience.”

— Kevin Clark, Director of Online Services, Ubisoft

GAME DELIVERY SOLUTIONS BRIEF

• Media Acceleration improves the quality and consistency of game downloads and updates for players, focusing on where quality tends to be impacted most — between the edge of the Akamai Intelligent Platform and the player’s device. As an extension to Akamai’s content delivery capabilities, Media Acceleration can be enabled by integrating technology directly into customer applications or browsers using an SDK, and utilizes UDP-based technology to enable a consistent, reliable, and fast delivery experience for each player regardless of their circumstances or local network conditions.

• Foreground Download provides high-performance delivery for prioritized game content to enhance the performance for large files and objects. This option utilizes optimal routing of game content over the Akamai Intelligent Platform™, and caching to enhance responsiveness and download speed performance.

2. Reliable, Secure, Scalable Delivery

Players expect frictionless experiences, which require a combination of fast game downloads and nearly instant updates, as well as intelligent pre-positioning of game assets on a player’s device before it’s requested. Working with a partner who can eliminate concerns about quality, reliability, and scale is a critical step in meeting the needs of your players.

Akamai is a trusted partner for game publishers and developers delivering the world’s largest game launches — providing a global distribution that has established benchmarks for capacity and scale. When an online distribution strategy for a variety of device types must succeed, the world’s most successful brands turn to Akamai. Working closely with lead

PC game distributors and console manufacturers, Akamai has the expertise and tools to help.

Akamai’s Download Delivery provides high-performance online distribution optimized for games and other file-based content. Built on the globally distributed Akamai Intelligent Platform™ for superior capacity, scalability, availability, and performance, Download Delivery offers your players a predictable, fast download experience that ensures they stay engaged, at the same time helping you confidently address your business goals.

Game publishers who require the highest performance for initial game downloads, installs, and updates can utilize the following delivery options:

Understand your players’ experience or risk losing them to a competitor who does.

GAME DELIVERY SOLUTIONS BRIEF

Predictive Content Delivery is a framework for App Developers to achieve a consistent background download of app assets, videos, and audio files without having to worry about all the nuances of platform-dependent APIs. Predictive Content Delivery capabilities can be implemented to download strategic assets to the device before the game initiates, allowing the user to start playing the game instantly regardless of the network connection. Auto-purge mechanisms also help to manage local storage for reuse, clearing out unnecessary assets.

For scenarios where game publishers want to intelligently pre-position game content at off-peak times, Akamai provides the following delivery options:

Retrieves fresh content from the origin server or Akamai NetStorage

Content upload toNetStorage (optional)

2

2a

End User

End User

End User

Akamai Edge Servers

Content Server

Authentication Server (optional)

Akamai NetStorage

(optional)

End user requests are directed to optimal Akamai edge server

Protected downloads are authenticated (optional)

Akamai delivers software quickly & reliably from local cache

1

1a

3

Open a window of visibility into how gamers feel about your brand based on key performance indicators.

GAME DELIVERY SOLUTIONS BRIEF

Expert Services and Support

Upload

NetStorage Download Delivery Download AnalyticsEnd User

+Predictive Content Delivery

+Media

Acceleration

Game Delivery Solution

RELIABLE, SCALABLE,SECURE DELIVERY

ROBUSTSTORAGE

INSIGHTS AND REPORTING

Visibility is critical to optimizing download performance, player retention, and monetization. Akamai’s highly flexible, customizable Download Analytics provides comprehensive insights and visibility into the effectiveness and health of your downloads so you can stay on top of crucial metrics

that help you make effective business decisions on your game delivery strategy. Our solution provides a wide array of analytics for your reporting needs including download performance, completions, errors, download times, and popularity.

3. Insight & Reporting into Your Gamers’ World

Finally, it’s critical to surround your operation with the right team of dedicated experts to help plan, monitor, and support your service from the ground up. Akamai’s Services and Support Solutions team acts as an extension of your own. Our globally distributed media experts provide trusted advice

and assistance from initial deployment through to ongoing support, maintenance, monitoring, and management. With a dedicated, round-the-clock point of contact, you can minimize the impact of time-sensitive issues.

4. Support Your Gaming Audience with Expert Services

To learn more about our Game Delivery Solution, go to Akamai.com/gaming

GAME DELIVERY SOLUTIONS BRIEF

As the world’s largest and most trusted cloud delivery platform, Akamai makes it easier for its customers to provide the best and most secure digital experiences on any device, anytime, anywhere. Akamai’s massively distributed platform is unparalleled in scale with over 200,000 servers across 130 countries, giving customers superior performance and threat protection. Akamai’s portfolio of web and mobile performance, cloud security, enterprise access, and video delivery solutions are supported by exceptional customer service and 24/7 monitoring. To learn why the top financial institutions, e-commerce leaders, media & entertainment providers, and government organizations trust Akamai please visit www.akamai.com, blogs.akamai.com, or @Akamai on Twitter. You can find our global contact information at www.akamai.com/locations. Published 07/17.

SOURCES

1,3,4) 2017 Ovum Study

2) Akamai