The Key to Making Games Successful: Your Network Infrastructure
Download PDFDec, 2023 The Key to Making
Games Successful:
Your Network
Infrastructure
Whitepaper
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Contents
Introduction
Why is Network Infrastructure Important?
Developing Your Network Infrastructure
Roadmap
The Game Development Lifecycle
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Stage 2: Launching a
Game to the Public
Games and Networks are Global
Test, Evaluate, and Plan
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Stage 3: Expanding
Game Availability
and Keeping Gamers
Engaged
Navigating Regional Complexity
Building for Reliability and Scalability
Example: Why One of the Biggest Gaming
Companies in the World Selected Telstra as its
Primary Asia-Pacific Network Infrastructure
Partner
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Stage 4: Streaming,
Broadcasting, and
Watching Individual
Gameplay and Esports
Tournaments
Esports as a Driver for Game Growth
Making Your Game Livestream Ready
Producing Esports Content
Example: How Riot Produces and Broadcasts
its Esports Content with Telstra
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Conclusion: The Network
Makes the Game Work
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Market Overview
The Growth of the Gaming Sector
China Market
Southeast Asia + Chinese Taipei Market
Connecting Asia and North America
Top Games in Asia, Developed in the U.S.
Top Games in the U.S., Developed in Asia
2019 Market Size (Million $USD)
The Rise of Mobile and Cloud Gaming
The Impact of COVID-19
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Stage 1: Developing
a Game, from
Conceptualization to
Production
Distributing a Game to Key Markets
Network Costs, Demands, and Diversity
Building the Network: Owned vs. Leased vs.
Hybrid
Ensuring Your Development and Design Teams
Can Easily Collaborate
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Whether you’re a small gaming startup just beginning your journey in the industry or a well-known
developer and publisher, the one thing you strive to do more than anything else is entertain people
and make great games. While there are many factors that can make a game successful – engaging
gameplay, interesting storylines, social interaction and community, competition, and more –
there’s one important element that’s often less talked about: how the game gets into the hands of
consumers and the network on which it’s distributed.
This white paper, developed by Niko Partners and Telstra, describes the critical role that
telecommunications (telecom) companies, providers, or partners play in the lifecycle of a game from
conceptualization and production to public release, to live services and updates, to esports. Gaming
companies must weigh several key network infrastructure and connectivity considerations in each
of these stages, which are influential to a game’s success, both in terms of consumer satisfaction
and financial performance. Using real-world case studies, interviews, and our analysis, we’ll outline
network infrastructure best practices for gaming companies and some of the approaches for
working with telecom providers.
Introduction
Why is Network
Infrastructure
Important?
If the network infrastructure and internet
connectivity that form the backbone of your
game are subpar, then latency, user experience,
and download time may suffer, often resulting
in frustrated gamers who may just move on
to another game. This is important because,
in today’s gaming world, console, PC, and
mobile gaming are all online, and cloud gaming
has just begun. Not only is connectivity
crucial when it comes to delivering a game to
consumers, it’s also a significant factor in the
development of the game itself, as well as the
other aspects that are associated with gaming
such as livestreams and esports. Great network
infrastructure may not be the sexiest part of
making a great game, but it may just be one of
the most vital; and, it’s imperative that you work
with telecommunications partners to ensure
everything you’ve worked so hard on goes off
without a hitch, keeps gamers coming back for
more, and sets you up for long-term success.
Additionally, by providing a good user experience
through a solid network, you’re more likely
to generate revenue from your game for your
business.
Developing Your
Network Infrastructure
Roadmap
Before we discuss each stage of game
development in more detail, let’s take a high-
level view of some of the decisions you’ll need to
make in developing your network infrastructure
roadmap. A game depends on a robust network
to function. To reach a global audience, gaming
companies must build fast, reliable, and
sustainable network infrastructure to deliver
game content to players in their key markets
(such as Asia and North America) and to connect
players to online features. The decisions you
make about how you build your network, even
in the early phases of development, can have a
dramatic impact on the success and profitability
of a title. Poor network experiences or technical
issues are demonstrated to reduce player
engagement, spending, and ultimately to cause
player attrition. Therefore, you’ll need to plan
early for executing and maintaining network
infrastructure by building a roadmap that
coincides with your game development timeline,
which will allow you to successfully develop and
launch your game, grow with your audience, and
account for variations in bandwidth demand and
prepare for potential gameplay disruptions.
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Development
Release
Critical Questions
Capacity needs?
In\brastructure costs?
Latency needs \bor per\bormance? Risks/mitigations?
Live Services
Decisions involved in developing your network
infrastructure roadmap include:
Your brand is intrinsically tied to
your network and your network
partners. Network implementation,
while separate from game design,
is a foundation of the player
experience. Learning these lessons
as a game launches to the public
risks alienating early adopters in key
markets essential to your game’s
growth and return on investment.
Many foundational decisions will
be made early in the development process, well before a company
engages a telecom to build their
network. However, remember that
a telecom company can be an
invaluable consulting resource that
can help you further define and
refine your go-to-market strategy,
cost estimates, and more.
In the following sections, we’ll
examine when these decisions
should be made in a game’s
lifecycle, and the best practices
Building your own network, paying to use a network from an existing platform (Amazon, Google,
etc.), or creating a hybrid solution that combines both. The correct approach depends on factors
such as scale, market, audience, and growth projections for a title.
Identifying key markets and developing roll-out strategies that consider existing infrastructure,
partnerships with local providers, IP transit, and the content delivery networks that will get the
game in the hands of consumers.
Preparing for and understanding the peaks and valleys in network demands due to seasonality,
new content, events, and other variables as well as planning contingencies to meet these
demands, when they occur.
Understanding the required network infrastructure to ensure peak performance for your
game. This includes identifying bandwidth and IP transit needs to achieve the level of latency
and resiliency essential for a positive user experience, and then mapping out the IP peering
and transit relationships needed across a country or region and the specific subsea cable
routes and data center locations that will get the game in the hands of your audience. Once
you understand these factors, you can better forecast and budget network related costs and
determine preliminary ROI, which are big factors in your game’s overall development and
production budget.
Planning appropriately for the potential streaming and broadcasting of your game (if and when
your game becomes a massive hit) with players. Many publishers, big and small, see huge value
in esports and have begun to create, produce and stream their own esports content. Having a
network capable of delivering that content globally is extremely important, especially as remote
production becomes more mainstream.
The Game Development Lifecycle
from the perspective of network
design and implementation.
While this is not exhaustive, it
provides guidance to publishers
and developers when building a
game-specific network, whether
you’re a startup doing this for the
first time, an established business
entering a new market, or a veteran
gaming company looking to refine
and evolve your existing network
infrastructure.
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Market
Overview
Before we get into the best practices, let’s first explore some of the gaming
market realities that may affect how you build your network infrastructure
and with which provider or providers you choose to build it.
The Growth of the Gaming Sector
Over the last decade, gaming has grown to
represent one of the largest consumer media
markets in the world, with global revenue of
$146 billion in 2019 (Niko Partners). Gaming is
a truly international industry bringing together
game development, design and production
teams often located in multiple regions around
the world, distributing games globally to
audiences in dozens of countries, livestreaming
gameplay on platforms like Twitch that almost
anyone anywhere can watch, and broadcasting
esports competitions (i.e., League of Legends)
that reach millions of spectators worldwide. It’s
the global nature of the gaming industry that
has enabled its growth.
However, some regions have grown and are
expected to grow more than others. More
specifically, Asia and North America have the
most robust gaming industries and neither
region is showing any signs of slowing down. There are over 2.5 billion gamers globally,
forecast to reach 2.7 billion in the next two
years, with about 60 percent in Asia where 2019
revenue hit $69 billion (Niko Partners). North
America will generate over $40 billion in games
revenue this year, with the majority of revenue
concentrated in the U.S. where 165 million
gamers play on consoles, PCs, and mobile
phones. The U.S. is also home to over 2,700
game company locations and there are over
220,000 U.S. jobs in the gaming sector. (ESA)
It’s no wonder these regions are often the two
most sought after markets for game developers,
publishers, broadcasters, esports organizations,
and other gaming service providers. That’s
where the gamers are, and, quite frankly, it’s
where the revenue is. Not only do gaming
companies in Asia and North America produce
content for their own regions, if and when
they’re looking to expand a game’s reach or
audience, many times they look to each other.
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China Market Southeast Asia + Chinese Taipei Market
Niko’s data covers Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Game Revenue
($ Billion) Gamers
(Million) Gamers spending more on
PC games during COVID-19
Gamers spending more on
mobile games during COVID-19
Gamers
(Million)
Game Revenue
($ Billion) Game Revenue
($ Billion)
Game Revenue ($ Billion) Gamers
(Million)
Gamers
(Million) Gamers playing esports
games or competing in esports
Gamers playing esports games or competing in esports Internet User
Penetration
Smartphone Users (Million)
2019 2023
2.193.14
2019 2024
14.614.7
2019 Time 20192023
Time Money
Money
2024
321
94.6% 77%
95% 99+%
97.2% 76.3%
81.6%
351
2019
2023
2.895.2
2019 2024
18.532
2019 2023
154.3186.8
2019 2023
227290.2 90%
20192024
637.1737
2019 2023
527679
PC Games
Mobile Games PC Games
Mobile Games
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U.S. Market
PC Games
Mobile Games
Source: Statista
Game Revenue ($ Million) Gamers
(Million)
Gamers
(Million)
Game Revenue
($ Billion)
2020 2025
4.474.85
2020 2025
145.6153.7
2020 2025
10.7311.35
2020 2025
147.1156.3
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Connecting
Asia and
North America
Asia and North America are at the forefront of the gaming
industry, so many games are developed in one region and
distributed to the other (and vice versa) to much success.
Just look at several of the top games over the last decade
that have done just this.
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PC Games (2019) PublisherYear
League of Legends Riot Games2010
DOTA 2 Valve Corp.2013
Fortnite Epic Games2017
APEX EA2019
Mobile Games (April 2020)PublisherYear
Candy Crush Saga King2012
Fortnite Mobile Epic Games2017
Red Alert Mobile EA / Tencent2018
FIFA OL4 EA2018
Call of Duty Mobile Activision / Blizzard / Tencent2019
Console Games (2019)PublisherYear
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Nintendo2014
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Nintendo2019
Kingdom Hearts 3 Square-Enix2019
Pokemon Sword/Shield Nintendo / Game Freak2019
Resident Evil 2 Capcom2019
Mobile Games (April 2020)PublisherYear
Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle Bandai Namco 2015
Guns of Glory: Empires FunPlus2017
PUBG Mobile Tencent2018
Rise of Kingdoms Lillith2018
Last Shelter: Survival Long Tech2020
Top Games in the U.S., Developed in Asia
Top Games in Asia, Developed in the U.S.
Source: Niko Partners and Sensor Tower
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LIVE
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Distributing games online in either
Asia or North America requires
not only game localization and
culturalization, but, just as
importantly, highly reliable telecom
services from a provider that has
infrastructure spanning both
regions.
Global game developers looking to
distribute their content to Asia’s
1.5 billion gamers (720 million of
whom are in China alone) should be
aware that gaming is much more
than an idle activity to gamers in
the region, it is a primary form of
entertainment. Gamers in Asia are
savvy and they demand high-quality
games that don’t crash, that push
the boundaries of the game design
medium, and are best in class for
their genres. They want to play the
best games, no matter where they
were developed. They want to play
2019 Market Size ($ Million)
Japan South Korea
them with their friends, and to know
that the games have high reliability
online so that competition is fair
and fun. Yes there are government
policies that restrict access to
certain titles, but that is a supply
issue not a demand or telecom
issue.
Asia is a major consumer of games
developed in North America and
is increasingly a major exporter of
games to North America. Five of the
top 10 mobile games by download
in Southeast Asia in the first half
of 2020 were developed outside of
Asia. In both Japan and South Korea
the number is six out of 10. In China,
60 percent of all PC gaming revenue
comes from foreign developed
titles. But, this isn’t a one-way
pipeline, China’s game exports
are growing at a faster rate than
domestic games revenue. This is
The Rise of Mobile and Cloud Gaming
Mobile gaming is the fastest
growing and most popular segment
throughout Asia, as measured by the
number of mobile gamers and the
revenue and growth rate of mobile
games. Already there are over 900
million mobile gamers in Asia, but
by 2023 there will be 150 million
more. All of this will mean a steady
increase of gaming revenue across
the region. Southeast Asia and
India will experience the majority of
this growth, but even established
The Impact of
COVID-19
Across the games industry COVID-19
has had a significant impact. Asia
was the first region to navigate
these hurdles as well as the first
region to plot a post-COVID course.
Shutdowns during the pandemic
slowed development, delayed hardware
production, and forced esports and
gaming events to move online-only.
But the pandemic also generated new
opportunities in the industry. Niko
Partners found that 50-75 percent of
Asian gamers reported spending more
time playing games and that streaming
viewership increased by 75-100
percent over the same period a year
prior. This signaled better visibility and
revenue for game publishers, but also
increased network demands.
markets, such as South Korea and
Japan, continue to add gamers and
game revenue annually.
Additionally, cloud gaming or
gaming as a service (GAAS) is an
emerging technology that will have
a significant impact on the industry
by both lowering barriers to entry
and moving product models towards
subscription services. Tencent’s
Start, Google Stadia, PlayStation
Now, Microsoft’s Project xCloud, GeForce Now, and others will all
change the way consumers access
games. In Asian markets where
access to gaming technology has
been a limiting factor for growth,
cloud gaming will allow more players
to experience top titles. While
cloud gaming will make games
more accessible to consumers, it
will also make network speed and
availability even more important to
the companies that want to reach
these gamers.
driven in part by a temporary game
approval freeze in 2018, when many
Chinese developers increased their
focus on the global market. This
has increased trans-Pacific game
revenue.
Chinese developers have not only
exported self-developed titles,
they have also partnered with
overseas publishers to license IP
and create new titles for a global
audience. Companies like Tencent
and NetEase are currently staffing
up development studios in North
America to infuse global elements
into their titles. In 2019, Sony
and Nintendo opened facilities
in Southeast Asia, signaling the
ongoing growth of the region’s
development industry. The Asian
developer global expansion
continues through and beyond 2020
in earnest.
Console
3,850
425
PC
2,3004,036
Mobile
11,636
5,359
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Stage 1
Developing a Game,
from Conceptualization
to Production
In the first stage of a game’s development, you’re
likely focused on creating a concept, designing the
gameplay and features, and producing the content.
It’s imperative that you plan for the cost of production,
establish a timeline for development milestones, and
think strategically about your go-to-market strategies
and the pending release of the game to the public.
While the content of the game is paramount, much of
the planning in this stage must also be grounded in the
game platform(s) (PC, mobile, console), the markets in
which the game will be released, the estimated return on
investment, and more. Network infrastructure costs are
a huge factor to be considered when planning as well.
By doing this and thinking strategically about how to
maximize network investments in the early life of a game,
it will enable it to be profitable sooner.
The top considerations in this stage
How can I ensure the best end user
experience (easy to download, low latency/
smooth gameplay, the game loads fast and
at high quality)? How do I determine my network
infrastructure needs and costs?
How do I access and distribute a game to
the key markets I’ve identified? How can I ensure optimal collaboration
between development teams who may be
located in several different places around
the world?
Should I build my own network, partner
with an existing platform (Amazon, Google,
etc.), or create a hybrid solution?
A telecom company can be an invaluable consultant when considering these questions and
can offer invaluable insights. Let’s look at these a little bit deeper.
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Distributing a Game
to Key Markets
Once you’ve identified the key markets in which you’ll
launch your game, you’ll need to figure out how the
content will actually get distributed to consumers in
those regions. Some markets are more difficult to enter
than others.
China has high regulatory hurdles to overcome, but once
your game successfully obtains a publishing license
there are also network limitations that need to be
considered. In order to distribute a game to consumers,
you must work with a state-approved distribution partner
such as Tencent or NetEase.
Some Southeast Asian (SEA) countries such as the
Philippines also have excessive barriers to entry due
to high backhaul costs, which also results in one of the
worst consumer experiences for internet connectivity in
Asia. Indonesia is similar to the Philippines. In contrast,
Singapore, which is close to both of these countries, is
far more open and is considered the telecom hub for SEA
allowing better network choice, quality, and diversity.
In North Asia, Japan and South Korea have high spending
gamers and they, like discerning gamers everywhere, will
demand low latency and high uptime, for uninterrupted
gaming.
To put it briefly, Asia is complex. With all of these
different regulations and potential obstacles to
network accessibility, it’s key that you work with a
telecom company that has a robust regional and global
infrastructure, local teams and expertise in each
country, and well-established partnerships and peering
relationships with in-country ISPs. This will enable you
to get your game into the hands of consumers in your key
markets much more easily and efficiently, allowing for
better return on investment over the long-term.
Network Costs, Demands,
and Diversity
Partnering with the wrong telecom provider can mean
that content moves inefficiently to your users, adversely
affecting their gaming experience. Worse still, a failure
to account for network redundancy and diversity may
leave your game susceptible to outages. While all users
may access content through peering arrangements
between telecom operators, more layers and hand offs
lead to network delays and introduce new potential
points of failure. Most telecom companies will be able to
help you navigate these roadblocks, but it is important
that you also understand the demands of the game you
are building. These include the latency necessary for
optimum game performance (a first-person shooter
game needs much lower latency than a turn-based
strategy game), network diversity and resiliency, the
number of points-of-presence (PoPs) you will need for
your anticipated audience, etc. A baseline understanding
of your network needs can help you as you begin to have
conversations with a telecom to map costs and network
design.
Safeguarding against network outages is critical for a
game’s success, and safeguarding against outages is one
aspect of the importance of securing carrier diversity.
Developing relationships with multiple carriers early in
the process in each market will allow a team to evaluate
networking costs and factor these into their budget. It
is important to ensure that these carriers’ networks do
not overlap too much, or you may be paying twice for the
same infrastructure.
Carrier diversity is also important to enable access to as
many consumers as possible. While your primary partner
will give you access to a majority of consumers in a
market, secondary partners will expand the reach of your
game and fill in the gaps in your primary network, crucial
if you want to go viral.
The complexity of the Asian region in terms of the
number of networks, local operators, and mobile carriers
can be daunting to companies unfamiliar with the
landscape. For this reason, many western companies
rely on local game publishers and distributors to manage
their games in Asia. Top game publishers in Asia include
Tencent, NetEase, and Garena.
Building the Network:
Owned vs. Leased vs. Hybrid
Owning the network infrastructure backbone on which
your game is developed and eventually released can
be time and cost-intensive, but it may make sense for
mass market games with the potential for long lifespans.
In some cases, it can be less flexible than a leased or
shared services network, but has the advantage of
being highly customizable to your company’s needs. For
example, Riot Games has built its own network which it
can tailor to the needs of its players.
If you’re a gaming company just starting out, it may
make sense to build your network infrastructure using
a shared networking service or a hybrid networking
solution, which can be mapped out with the help of your
telecom partner(s). As a game and its audience grows,
you may decide to start building out your own network
infrastructure, and, again, a telecom company can assist
you in evaluating the most cost-effective approach. The
route you choose depends on your goals and how you will
balance up-front capital investment versus operational
costs, so having a road map that covers both the short
and long term growth of your game can save headache
and maximize value as you grow.
Ensuring Your Development
and Design Teams Can
Easily Collaborate
You may also engage a telecom company or cloud
provider to build a private network for development
purposes. In order to facilitate reliable, secure, large-
scale collaboration companies may build a dedicated
private network to connect servers in several locations
or between international teams. This can be used
to connect servers in several locations or between
international teams. These kinds of networks are
generally reserved for larger projects generating
significant revenue, as smaller productions can rely on
leased servers. Private networks are built solely for the
purpose of internal networking.
While these networks are not the ones your players will
use, they are an important part of the game development
process. They allow your team to work on a project from
various locations as if they were in the same office,
sending giant packets of proprietary information quickly
and safely. Most of your investment in a game is put
into the development process, making leaks especially
damaging, and a secure proprietary network essential.
Moreover, this may be the first time you engage a telecom
to support your work. As such, this is an opportunity
to evaluate your telecom partner and to begin asking
questions about costs, strategy, and your network road
map.
It’s important to have a telecom company help you map
this out and ensure you do this right. This is particularly
imperative in Asia where network access, IP transit
costs, and IP routing is more complex than in many open
Western markets. While the U.S. and North America have
a less complicated geography of telecoms providers
and networks, compared to Asia, building a network and
network partnerships is still a key to success in this
market.
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Stage 2
Launching a Game
to the Public
As you’re getting ready to launch your game to the
public, you’re likely going through the finaling stage of
production and multiple rounds of private or public beta
testing. Throughout this process, you’ll need to identify
the network infrastructure requirements necessary to
deliver a positive user experience and you can do this by
assessing the network with your beta testers, which can
then be extrapolated to the requirements needed for a
larger global audience. While no launch is ever flawless,
planning for this by consulting with your telecom
provider(s) in this stage can help mitigate potential
disruptions, generate contingencies, and predict
unforeseen network demands. The top considerations in this stage
How and/or where should I beta test or soft
launch the game? What backup plan is in place to deal with
network outages or unexpected demand?
Am I prepared to meet demand or adjust
accordingly based on data from beta
testing?
How much bandwidth will be needed for
each user and what does that mean at
scale? What steps can be taken to adjust
performance if it is not meeting
benchmarks?
How much will my network infrastructure
cost when we launch to the masses?
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Games and Networks
are Global
Designing a plan for where you will roll-out with your
network partners can keep costs low and your players
satisfied.
However, as your game grows, you will need to develop
a global network infrastructure. Using the lessons you
learned from your game’s launch, you can create your
own global network. You will need to start with a strong
network backbone, which is essentially a system of
subsea cables that connect data centers in key regions
across the world.
By partnering with global content delivery networks and
global telecom providers from the outset, you can ensure
that the content will reach your targeted end users when
the game is finally released. Additionally, building out
the edge of a network and caching game data locally in
your major markets allows you to make the content more
easily accessible to users to minimize network latency.
This means placing infrastructure and servers closer to
your users, especially in key markets where you hope to
grow your game’s footprint.
Test, Evaluate, and Plan
As a network is put to work in the beta testing phase, the
ability to monitor network demands generates data that
will be essential to planning for full release. Where this
testing takes place is also crucial, as a publisher needs
to understand how a game will perform in key markets.
This is the last opportunity to catch network flaws before
a game goes live, so the ability to test and scale quickly,
and the ability to monitor game performance as it passes
to regional peers is vital to launch-day success. For each
key market, you must be able to test and understand
the performance of network components and points of
connection.
This will also help you to understand what developments
need to take place as the game moves into live services
and updates. Using network partners to evaluate
performance can build a roadmap for subsequent game
releases.
Although testing can help to plan for launch day
demands, this process is not foolproof. Publishers must
develop strategies with network partners to scale-up as
demands arise. The number of markets a game enters at
launch will complicate this planning. The complexity of
the Asian telecoms marketplace creates an imperative
to work with a telecom like Telstra that has a network
that operates across Asia at scale, has unique IP and
backbone strength, and has experience partnering with
gaming companies. That kind of telecom partner can help
you navigate and evaluate network implementation and
planning on the fly.
Assigning resources to each market in the region can
be costly, and this is compounded by administrative,
industrial, regulatory, and cultural differences on a
country-by-country basis. Regional expertise with local
teams can mitigate greater unforeseen costs.
Likewise, developing peering relationships and diverse,
network redundant partnerships can insulate a network
from spikes in demand or local network outages. While
it is impossible to anticipate all contingencies, diligent
testing and communication with your telecom partners
can help you launch with a network that is ready to meet
your players’ demands.
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Stage 3
Expanding Game
Availability and Keeping
Gamers Engaged
Following a release, you’ll turn to providing live services
and game updates. The network is stable and launch-day
network issues have, hopefully, been resolved. The focus
shifts from building a network and finalizing a game,
toward service expansion, updates, expanding to new
markets, quality-of-life improvements, and more.
Niko Partners analysis shows that 25 percent of Chinese
mobile gamers surveyed in 2020 reported abandoning
a title either due to poor content or technical issues,
meaning the live services that improve the experience,
mitigate latency and game errors, and keep a game fresh
are a crucial part of the long-term success of a title. The top considerations in this stage
How do I keep the audience engaged, keep
them playing, spending, and not moving on
to the next game? How do I make sure the network can
withstand a variety of issues such as
network outages or increased latency due
to spikes in demand, physical disruptions
to network infrastructure, etc.?
How do I ensure the best user experience
in the face of potential network outages,
and/or low network capacity or availability?
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Navigating Regional
Complexity
The gaming market in Asia is the largest in the world,
as we mentioned before, and for this reason many
Western gaming companies will seek to gain a foothold
there. However, the market is also highly competitive.
An understanding of gamer motivations, market
characteristics, and successful go-to-market strategies
are crucial to a game’s profitability and longevity in this
market.
Part of this requires identifying elements that
differentiate the subregions in Asia from each other, and
collectively from the West. Niko Partners has written
numerous reports and analysis on this topic for nearly
two decades. For instance, PC gaming is driven by a
robust Internet café industry in key markets such as
China, Korea, and across Southeast Asia (SEA). Mobile
gaming in the region is driven by rising smartphone
penetration rates in China, India, and SEA.
Network geography is also an important factor for
this market. The number of countries and operators
in the region can make navigating network design and
implementation especially complicated.
Regional gamer profiles are key to understanding how
to successfully expand services in the region. Niko finds
that Asian gamers are motivated by what we call “The 4
Cs: Competition, Community, Completion, and Challenge.”
Gamers like to be social, compete, and be challenged by
games. If a game has such features, gamers are more
likely to be attracted to it. However, we find that the
largest driver of player attrition is poorly implemented
monetization, followed importantly by poor content and
technical issues.
In order to compete in this market, developers and
publishers need to ensure that their game meets gamers’
expectations from day one.
Building for Reliability
and Scalability
The Asia-Pacific region is a challenging region for telecom
providers for two key reasons: it’s the most challenging
region in the world for subsea cable cuts (due to a high
concentration of shipping routes, natural disasters, etc.),
and many countries do not have fully open/competitive
telecommunications industries. Network disruptions can cut off players from their
communities or end a stream early, and these experiences
can have serious impacts on the longevity, profitability,
and the legacy of a title. An experienced telecom partner
– with both regional scale to provide network diversity
and redundancy as well as Asia-Pacific expertise to
provide unique access and lower costs – can identify
areas of the network that are susceptible to failure or
where connections can be made more efficiently. Locating
single points of failure and designing solutions for
congestion can improve the player experience as well as
prevent major outages.
Network outages caused by damage to
telecommunications infrastructure are inherently
unpredictable, but building resilience and eliminating
single points of failure can mitigate this for your game
when they do occur. Natural disasters, fiber optic cable
damage caused by shipping traffic, and other events can
produce outages that congest global networks affecting
your players and it is important to be prepared for these
events. Although the data that passes along them is
digital, networks themselves are physical, and this opens
them up to all kinds of disruptions or failures. A network
with a high degree of resiliency can react to the outages
before your players are impacted.
Another kind of network disruption, network spikes, can
have a similar effect. Network spikes are tied to major
holidays as well as media releases. The two largest events
on Telstra’s Australian network in 2019 were the release
of Fortnite 11.0 Season 2 and the launch of Disney+
hit The Mandalorian. Similarly, COVID-19 caused a 50
percent uptick in international traffic virtually overnight
as businesses moved to teleconferencing and consumers
turned to streaming video and increased online gaming
for their entertainment (Telstra, 2020). These spikes can
slow down your network, making your game unplayable
or cutting off key features like in-game stores and
transactions. Nothing can take away from the excitement
of a new patch or update, like long download times or
overcrowded queues. While spikes are sometimes more
predictable than outages, being able to respond to both
must be part of your game plan.
A network must be designed to account for shifting
demands without adversely affecting players. Publishers
should choose a company that is continually investing in
more infrastructure to meet surging demands. Building
diversity into your network through PoPs, carriers, routes,
and through your own IP network can give your network
redundancy and eliminate or at least minimize how
vulnerable you are to unexpected outages. Likewise,
ensuring your network partners are able to scale up to
meet new demand and minimize network spikes, ensures
your game is always playable.
In 2017, one of the biggest gaming companies
in the world engaged with Telstra with the goal
of building up its network in Asia. Telstra was
selected because it owns one of the largest IP
networks in the region (up to 33 percent of all
internet traffic in Asia moves through Telstra),
and because of Telstra’s unique offerings, which
provide access to countries such as China, Korea
and Taiwan. Other telecom providers in Asia do not
have this level of connectivity across the region.
In 2019, this gaming company reorganized its
network to use Telstra as its primary gateway
into and within Asia. This was in response to a
major outage caused by the 2018 tsunami that
ravaged Japan. As a result of the tsunami, most
gaming companies were nearly cut-off from
Asia, but Telstra was as one of the only networks
keeping the region’s servers online and the only
subsea network that remained online in Japan.
These kinds of events can cause a company to
re-evaluate their network design, to safeguard
against future outages, and that’s exactly what
this gaming company decided to do.
Prior to this natural disaster, this company had
been partnering with multiple telecom providers
in Asia (and it still does to some extent), but
Example: Why One of the Biggest Gaming Companies
in the World Selected Telstra as its Primary Asia-
Pacific Network Infrastructure Partner
after that event, its network engineers needed
to take a hard look at the business’ network
infrastructure to prevent something like this from
happening again. Through that review process,
the network engineers found that by expanding
the company’s partnership with Telstra, not only
could they mitigate natural disasters, but they
could also save 35 percent on their costs, and
streamline the company’s partners in the region.
This had a positive impact on the people that
play the company’s games, as costs came down
and it would be less likely gameplay would be
interrupted.
Telstra now carries 80 percent of that publisher’s
backbone traffic between the U.S. and Asia,
and 60 percent of its transit network traffic in
the Asia-Pacific region. The scope of Telstra’s
network helps tis gaming company to identify
and eliminate single points of failure, preventing
network outages. Additionally, Telstra’s presence
in the region makes them a one-stop-shop for
managing ISP partnerships across Asia. Rather
than manage individual partnerships with ISPs
across Asia, the business counts on Telstra to
support its operations in the region and to make
its servers accessible to its players.
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Stage 4
Streaming, Broadcasting,
and Watching Individual
Gameplay and Esports
Tournaments
Streaming and esports help your game reach new
audiences, provide new monetization options, and
increase the longevity of your work. While these elements
may seem far removed from the game development
process, they can do wonders for the success of a title.
Extending the lifespan of your game, building awareness
among a community of fans, and introducing new ways
for your players to see and use your game translates
directly to long term ROI. While much of this can happen
organically, there are active measures you can take to
make your game easier to stream and reliable enough to
support serious competitions.
The top considerations in this stage
How can you make it easier for people to
stream your games and watch esports
competitions? With top TV sports networks becoming
more interested in this space and acquiring
rights to broadcast esports events, how
can you reliably deliver the live content
they paid for?
With esports events moving online, how
can you ensure the experience that pro
players and esports teams need for fair
game play? (low latency, reliability, security,
e t c .) How can you best connect the two biggest
esports markets in the world, US and
China, to reach the biggest audiences and
better monetize your content?
Can you produce top-tier events remotely,
from anywhere in the world, without having
to set aside a massive esports budget?
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Esports as a Driver
for Game Growth
The network and partnerships you have built to support
your game can be the foothold you use to develop a
livestreaming or esports production pipeline to grow your
audience.
The top grossing games in Asia, across both mobile and
PC are esports titles. Esports and live streaming are
demonstrated drivers of engagement and growth for
the games industry for the region. There are over 350
million esports fans in China alone, and 60 percent of
Asian gamers report being drawn to esports titles. These
numbers translate directly to higher rates of in-game
spending, stronger engagement, and longer usage of the
games.
During the COVID-19 pandemic induced quarantine,
esports and livestreaming viewership was up between 75
to 100 percent over the same period a year before (Niko
Partners 2020). This reflects the growing importance of
esports and streaming as a cultural phenomenon.
While esports fandom is growing organically, it takes
thoughtful positioning and investment to transform your
game into an esports title for the global stage, but the
network behind your game can help with this. Working
with your network partners, it is possible to leverage IP
transit networks, as well as more traditional broadcast
networks and production infrastructure to create a cost-
effective esports solution.
Making Your Game
Livestream Ready
Streamers depend on networks to share their content
with an audience. Esports depend on uptime during
the tournament for pure competition, as well as robust
network and broadcast infrastructure to share it with the
world. Games are cultural objects, and once your game
is in the hands of players, it begins to develop a life of its
own.
Producing Esports Content
Esports can put your game in front of millions of viewers.
This is your opportunity to showcase your work and
generate exposure, but technical failures at this stage
can be catastrophic for the perception of your game.
2020 has seen a hiatus on in-person esports events in
favor of online-only competitions. At the same time,
esports viewership has increased substantially. This
makes connectivity and network capacity incredibly
important for the success of an esports production,
particularly if competitors are also connecting remotely.
Low latency is crucial to the legitimacy of these
online esports competitions and to the experience of
professional players.
If you are testing the waters by building online-only
competitions or small-scale esports events, these can
be produced using minimal broadcast infrastructure,
relying primarily on live streaming platforms and your
existing IP infrastructure to stream your content to the
world. The gaming networks you build in key markets
can accelerate the distribution of esports content to
streaming platforms like Twitch, Huya.or Douyu. However,
large scale esports productions, especially those
using multiple video feeds or employing a production
team to edit content, demand more infrastructure and
bandwidth. For these kinds of productions, you will want
partner with a telecom provider for support.
Major aspects of broadcasting that a telecom can provide: • Extensive live broadcast media knowledge and experience
• Remote production infrastructure
• Global field services and special events teams
• Direct connectivity between venues, studios, and broadcast partners
• Integrated global satellite, fiber, and IP network to deliver low latency, resilient connectivity
With your operation in full gear, your attention turns to
improving players’ experience, growing your audience,
and developing the culture around your game. This
means establishing new PoPs to improve the gaming
experience and to efficiently bring your game to new
regions. Your networks must be able to grow to meet
shifting demands. You will work with your network
partners to build this, and their experience serving the
gaming and media industries can alleviate some of the
stress of navigating demands a growing player-base will
put on your network. As your esports scale up, rather than reaching players
across a region, one-off esports require huge data
connectivity to venues, usually for only a few days
at a time. When you are ready to build this kind of
esports event your network partner will work with local
networks to pin up temporary connections and rely on
international fiber optic networks or satellite feeds to
send esports video across the world. While esports aren’t right for every game, if this is
part of your plan, your network design can help lay
the groundwork for your esports ambitions. Esports
broadcasts are demanding with video packets from
multiple feeds sent all over the world. Thinking of how
you will produce esports tournaments, where they will be
held and where they will be watched, and then partnering
with a telecom network provider allows you to design the
kind of network that esports events demand and build
this into your games network.
As the popularity of League of Legends and
esports has skyrocketed in recent years, the
number of people needed to produce a top-notch
esports event and broadcast it to millions of fans
around the world has similarly increased. However,
a couple of years ago in 2018, Riot Games
launched its second generation remote production
transmission kit, which enabled Riot to use a tenth
of the bandwidth originally needed and allowed
most of its production crew to stay home without
sacrificing broadcast quality (Riot Games, 2019).
Before the launch of the remote production
transmission kit, major esports events like the
League of Legends World Championship or the
League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational would
be produced using a massive onsite production
team, loads of video and audio equipment and
servers, and production trucks the size of tractor
trailers. These trucks incorporate multiple
video and audio feeds from onsite cameras and
microphones that are then compiled into a single
high-quality broadcast. This broadcast would then
be sent to production teams in dozens of countries
around the world that localize the content (with
appropriate language and commentary) for the
audience. Riot produces the main feed, and
they also manage hundreds of video and audio
channels that produce the localized content,
which is then routed to the appropriate countries.
The custom channels enable the remote
production of the event without the added cost
and logistics of flying regional staff and partners onsite, and the new transmission kit allows for all
of those various feeds to be assembled remotely
out of Riot HQ in Los Angeles (Riot Games, 2019).
Here’s how it worked for the 2019 League of
Legends Mid-Season Invitational. For that event,
Riot used its studio in Los Angeles to manage
its remote production of the event taking place
in Chinese Taipei and Vietnam. Multiple high-
definition video and audio feeds from the venue
were transported to Riot Direct – the company’s
global Internet backbone – via local telecom
providers. Once the feeds were uplinked to
Riot Direct, which is supported by a network
of subsea cables owned by Telstra, they then
traveled thousands of miles to Riot’s studio
in LA. There, the feeds would be edited and
finalized for broadcast and then sent back out
to the many streaming and broadcast partners
across Asia, again using Riot Direct and Telstra’s
subsea cables, to get the feeds to consumers.
All of this takes place in a matter of moments,
eliminating the need for mobile production studios
and standardizing the look and quality of Riot’s
esports broadcasts. The Mid-Season Invitational
was a huge success and Riot now handles all
production from its Los Angeles headquarters
thanks in large part to Riot Direct and Telstra’s
underlying network. Riot relies on Telstra’s high-
speed, trans-Pacific fiber optic network to make
this cutting-edge remote production framework
possible.
Example: How Telstra Helps Riot Games Produce and
Distribute its Esports Broadcasts
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Conclusion: The
Network Makes
the Game Work
When it’s operating as it should, your network is invisible to gamers,
and this often makes network infrastructure considerations secondary
to game development and production. Producers, designers, and
developers are all hard at work realizing the vision for the game via
compelling storylines, game mechanics, and exciting visuals, but network
engineers and telecom providers play integral roles in ensuring the
game’s success, too. Developing a network infrastructure strategy and
planning for its execution may seem tedious, but it can have a significant
impact on whether or not a game becomes a hit. Working with a global
telecommunications partner to develop a network strategy at each stage
of the game development lifecycle ensures all the sleepless nights weren’t
for nothing. Even simply understanding the kinds of decisions you will
need to make at each stage can help you build a roadmap for network
design and budget for these costs.
The North America and Asia are the most important, largest, and
continually growing games markets driven by massive audiences and
equally massive game development and publishing industries. As you build
a game that can move between these markets, network strategy will be
crucial to your success. Understanding the institutional and infrastructural
complexities of these markets and navigating the telecommunications
complexities of the region will be an advantage that allows your game to
thrive.
So, if there’s one thing you take away from this white paper, it’s this: work
closely with your telecom providers because when it comes down to it, the
network makes the game work.
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Contact your Telstra account representative for more details.
tg_sales@team.telstra.com telstra.com/americas
2020.10.09 v221 CCoE
