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.
“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
Solution outcomes
Connect Your Communities
Unify your players across platforms with Matchmaking and use flexible rules to decide how you want to connect them.
Coordinate Matched Players
Group your matched players into scalable multi-platform Lobbies. Create, find, and join searchable Lobbies for custom Multiplayer experiences.
Notify Connected Players
Real-time notifications update connected Clients for you. No polling necessary to notify Clients of changes to Matchmaking or Lobby.