Developer data platforms are potentially being looked at as the future of data for developers in the video game industry. This basically gives developers the tools they need to more efficiently deploy any idea and update they have in a simplified form that doesn’t sacrifice the quality of output.
This is a, no pun intended, game changer for developers that have to meet release dates and deadlines that are becoming shorter and shorter. The rapid growth of the industry is seeing no signs of slowing down, with a market expected by the World Economic Forum to be worth $321 billion by 2026. Games are being cranked out at increasingly faster rates, and there is a need for developers to have the means to release their builds without either the end product or their own well-being suffering in the process.
This is why we are starting to see the likes of Tigris and Atlas out there allowing developers to maintain data pipelines and keep consistency across different infrastructures and systems. As the industry grows, so do developer data platforms become beacons of change.
Data and the Video Game Industry
Data storage and data analytics are huge players when it comes to video games. Consider how much player data is generated by both single-player and multiplayer games. This informs updates, next releases, content, and response to bugs.
The very existence of video games to this day is hinged on data feeding into storage, level design, marketing, and all other aspects that go into releasing a title. Developers must deal with the backend impact of being able to stream games, run live servers, record live states, deal with traffic, and authenticate users for factors like DRM.
Way before a game ever even touches a player’s hands or gets into their library, developers must already contend with QA and testing. When released, games then have the potential to be hubs for microservices, scalability, cloud, and As-a-Service-models. Inside Big Data cites a great example in Fortnite, which generates 92 million events a minute. This requires solid development preparation and infrastructure that can actually handle the demand.
How DDPs Are Changing the Dev-to-Gamer Pipeline
DDPs can make the development process much smoother, so you essentially get the full games to players more quickly. Even though we are in an era where “Early Access” has made players comfortable with games that technically aren’t completed yet, there is still the need to produce something inherently playable. Hence, developers make use of the powerful real-time data processing, dynamic content, and scalability that is provided by DDPs.
Players are already seeing the fruits of this change without realizing it. For instance, MongoDB Atlas has largely powered the always-on application that is Sonic Forces: Speed Battle. It’s an apt game to make use of an infrastructure that is meant to speed up and scale as needed.
Additionally, DDPs have enabled developers to track and deploy changes more easily for version control. Modern gamers are accustomed to updates being pumped out without breaking their in-game experienced, and this is largely made possible thanks to the tools that a DDP facilitates. This kind of data integration and API manipulation is what has allowed games like Cyberpunk 2077 to go from viral disappointments to massive hits. This even trickles down to those who specialize in modding games, whose custom content and tools are only made feasible by the development that comes from the topline.
The Multiplayer Shift and the Role of DDP
Finally, DDPs have the most impact on multiplayer. Aside from performance optimization, a DDP allows for quality-of-life features and anti-cheat measures to be deployed in real-time. This also allows for community and social features that need to be managed, regardless of the size of the player base. The impact on the prevention of cheating is perhaps most important, with popular games like Valorant continuing to see new types of hacking software seeping into ranked matches.
With battle passes and custom skins becoming the biggest profit points for free-to-play multiplayer titles, a DDP also helps systems to bar content as needed and unlock it for paying players. A DDP also helps to enact game balance and fairness – matching players with those in the same skill level as them, analyzing mechanics to improve game balance and identifying exploits in the game.
We also see its presence in huge new titles like Street Fighter 6, which have been lauded for their net code quality and their introduction of the Battle Hub. Session management, server allocation, customization, communication, and proper matchmaking are all made possible by having the right tools to enable these on large scales. Gaming is all about reaching the next level, and it looks like the industry is taking it there.
