GDC 2022

Lessons in matchmaking and cross-platform play with Azure PlayFab Multiplayer Services

No Man's Sky


With No Man’s Sky, Hello Games set out to create an epic adventure, and believed the experience would be enriched by having all players – regardless of platform – experience the game together. Their groundbreaking work led to gamers on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC playing together. The team's insights into creating cross-platform games were highly valuable in shaping Azure PlayFab Matchmaking to include real-time notifications, and a Lobby feature to group players across their user base.

 

This demo shows Azure PlayFab Matchmaking and Lobbies in action with Steam to Xbox cross-play.

Benefits

Connect Your Communities

Unify your players across platforms with Matchmaking and use flexible rules to decide how you want to connect them.

Fighters staring across a snowy tundra with ships in the distance.

Coordinate Matched Players

Group your matched players into scalable multi-platform Lobbies. Create, find, and join searchable Lobbies for custom Multiplayer experiences.

Players huddled together with neon lights in the background.

Notify Connected Players

Real-time notifications update connected Clients for you. No polling necessary to notify Clients of changes to Matchmaking or Lobby.

A player with a jet pack hovers above the ground while other players walk toward a structure in the distance.
PlayFab allowed us to realise our vision of a single shared universe for all our players to explore together.

 

— Iain Brown, Server/Multiplayer Lead at Hello Games

Resources

Developer Info

Hello Games is a small studio who like to harness technology to make creative, innovative, ambitious and artistic games.

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Solution website

Discover cross-network identity, multiplayer online game servers, and accessible party chat to help grow your live games and scale to fulfill player demand.

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Documentation

Azure PlayFab: Guide on Multiplayer servers, matchmaking and Party

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