Amazon GameLift Servers features

Iterate quickly with Amazon GameLift Servers Anywhere which enables you to deploy, validate, and playtest changes to your game server logic in seconds.

Patch with zero downtime 

Keep players online and engaged with zero downtime patches to your game servers. Seamlessly migrate players to new game server versions using Amazon GameLift Servers Alias and Queue features.

Local iterative development 

Register your local development environment with Amazon GameLift Servers. Compile and test updates to your game server logic by sending game session requests to Amazon GameLift Servers. These requests will be redirected to your local development environment, allowing you to set breakpoints and debug in real time. When ready, Amazon GameLift Servers will deploy your updates to players in up to 24 Regions and 9 Local Zones.

Build with flexible containers

Containers package up the entire runtime environment - all the code, dependencies, and configuration files needed to run the game server. With containers, game developers can seamlessly move game server builds between their local machines for testing, staging environments, and production deployments on-premises or in the cloud without worrying about missing dependencies or configuration drift. Containers also allow efficient use of resources by running multiple isolated game servers on the same host machine. Overall, containerization simplifies the deployment process, enables consistent secure environments, and optimizes resource utilization for game server builds in the cloud or on-premises data centers.

Lower infrastructure costs by using Amazon EC2 Spot instances, AWS Graviton instances with up to 20% better price-performance, or bring your own on-premises compute and burst to the cloud with AWS. Save costs with Amazon GameLift Servers' intelligent autoscaling algorithm which scales up and back down after peak hours.

Spot instances 

Get the same high-performance of on-demand game servers with savings up to 70%. Choose from more than 100 supported Amazon GameLift Servers compute instance types that let you select the ideal combination of CPU, memory and networking for your game. All Amazon GameLift Servers instances come with Enhanced Networking, which provides significantly higher packet per second (PPS) performance and lower network jitter. This means lower latencies and more consistent gameplay experiences.

Graviton instances

Amazon GameLift Servers supports the latest generation of compute-optimized AWS Graviton instances. Graviton instances provide savings of up to 20% versus comparable x86-based Amazon EC2 instances. Graviton instances are suitable for even the most demanding latency sensitive workloads while providing significant price-performance benefits.

Hybrid topologies

Mix and match compute across multiple providers including AWS, other cloud providers, and on-premises. Bring your own game server capacity and burst to the AWS cloud on demand. Amazon GameLift Servers manages sessions, server selection, and scaling, all from a single management layer.

Game launches, events, and going viral can generate sudden demand spikes. Be confident that your players can enjoy your game as intended, even during the most unpredictable circumstances.

Global coverage

Latency and reach are critical for an amazing player experience. Deploy game servers around the world on reliable AWS infrastructure in 24 Regions and 9 Local Zones across 5 continents. Be everywhere your players are and bring them low latency gaming experiences with 99.99% availability.

Built for game scale 

Amazon GameLift Servers can launch thousands of game servers simultaneously and stop unused ones just as fast. Autoscaling prevents players from waiting by quickly responding to rising player demand, and rapidly scaling back down to save costs. No need to provision or pay for peak capacity up-front, only pay for what you use.

Reliable and secure infrastructure 

Security and reliability matter on launch day. Amazon GameLift Servers maintains 99.99% availability, which means players will join your game and stay there once connected, even during unpredictable spikes in traffic.

Insights, monitoring, and debugging 

Amazon GameLift Servers provides dashboards for monitoring the performance of your game, including real-time data on player demand, server capacity and health, CPU and memory utilization. You can also create operational alarms using Amazon CloudWatch. Amazon GameLift Servers automatically collects game server logs for retrieval and inspection, so you know how your game servers are affecting your player experience and cost. Connect directly to individual Amazon GameLift Servers game servers through either SSM/SSH (Linux) or Remote Desktop Protocol (Windows).

DDoS protection

Amazon GameLift Servers is designed to safeguard your game servers from network and transport layer distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks through AWS Shield, included at no additional charge. Learn more about protecting game servers from DDoS attacks.

Matchmaking for the largest crowds 

Amazon GameLift Servers FlexMatch enables you to match and connect up to 200 players into a single game session based on custom matching rules that you define. Whether you choose to match players based on player skill, latency, or custom criteria, FlexMatch’s simple but powerful rules language makes it easy to quickly create robust player matchmaking. You can use FlexMatch with the rest of Amazon GameLift Servers game servers or on its own.

Bring your own developer tools and integrate directly with Amazon GameLift Servers. Get started in minutes using game engine plugins for Unity and Unreal Engine, or use SDKs available for C++, C# and Go.

Game engines

Amazon GameLift Servers provides plugins for major game engines such as Unreal and Unity, and SDKs are available for O3DE and custom engines developed on C#, C++, and Go.

Platforms

Amazon GameLift Servers supports all major platforms and devices, including PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, mobile, web, and AR/VR headsets. Enable cross-play by putting players on different platforms into the same game servers using Amazon GameLift Servers.

Game backends

Integration with popular game backends such as Pragma, Heroic Labs/Nakama, and AccelByte make it easy to add Amazon GameLift Servers-powered game servers with just the click of a button.

DevOps tools

Use cloud-agnostic DevOps tools like Terraform and Pulumi powered by AWS Cloud Control to deploy Amazon GameLift Servers and integrate with the rest of your backend.

Game analytics

Amazon GameLift Servers integrates easily with your game analytics solution, including Datadog, Databricks, and others.

Monitoring

Amazon GameLift Servers is integrated with Amazon CloudWatch to monitor server performance and infrastructure usage.

Deep integration with AWS services

Take advantage of AWS services with no extra effort. Amazon GameLift Servers combines seamlessly with services such as AWS Shield, Amazon Elastic Container Service, and Amazon CloudWatch so you can spend less time integrating and more time building your game.