Psychz - Sharad
Votes: 0Posted On: Apr 10, 2017 08:47:52
Games as a Service have risen to a new level in last 5 years. The ever growing demand is leading to the development of games that are more advanced than their previous versions providing more adrenaline, high graphics and better user control. The user state is saved on the cloud and is available on multiple devices, allowing gamers to easily pick up where they left off. To create such gaming environment requires more sophisticated Internet infrastructure with ultra low latency to ensure a highly available game experience for users, regardless of location or device.
As a Gaming hosting company, you must address following challenges to maintain gaming players loyalty by delivering the exceptional gaming experience
Latency: Games and gamers are very sensitive to latency. Reducing server side latency by including dedicated physical hardware, usage of flash drives. On the network side, using UDP and TCP acceleration techniques and leveraging edge caching for static file delivery.
Availability: Provide more failover options and custom configurations to keep your service going for you.
Scalability: Ability to handle the sudden influx of players.
Infrastructure costs: Optimally utilize budgets without compromising the quality of the environment provided to the gamers.
Things you need to start your own game server hosting company.
So, to start your own game server hosting company the first and foremost things you require are the servers. Of course, money comes above all but I am not going to discuss how much money you would need to start your own hosting company because that would purely depend on the size of the company you would want to establish.
Getting the servers
Buying dedicated servers seems like a better choice as it will save a lot of money in the long run compared to renting a box. But if you’re unable to find cheap colocation you may need to rent.
Now if you buy the servers, you can assemble them yourself for colocation at the data center of your choice rather than setting up using ssh or remote desktop
Mostly commonly used dedicated server hardware configuration
CPU: Single/Dual core Xeon
HD: 500/1000GB Sata2
Memory: 8/16GB ECC
Bandwidth: 2500GB Data Transfer
This configuration is not strong enough to provide the right environment for the gamers. Considering the fact that you would not need more than 8-10GB of space per customer on the server, 25GB for the operating system. So overall you would need 250GB of space which means you can go for SSD instead of a SATA disc. They offer lesser latency on file access read offering faster data access.
Server Control panel
TCAdmin is the most popular and easy to setup and run. It has a great integration with major billing API as well. With its flexible design and powerful features, TCAdmin has been designed to help today’s Game Service Provider save time and money while allowing end users complete control over their servers.
It has a built-in feature for voice control, game control and a feature packed module that integrates with WHMCS Billing System.
Plans and Pricing
The second most important factor after service is the pricing. A customer would want the best available product within his budget. And for that same reason, you must have different plans to choose from. You can choose the type of provider you want to be, for example, Budget, Regular or Advanced. Each plan as the name suggests will offer the kind of service at a stipulated price.
Game Server Hosting market is observing saturation due to rise in new hosting companies. However, the demand for good service providers will always keep a window open for the new entrants.
Once you can offer the support and reliability your customers need then you will grow as a firm mainly through word of mouth.
