Azure for game development
Accelerate your game development with Azure PlayFab, build your own cloud game services from scratch, or get support for your indie title with the ID@Azure program.
Earn the trust of your players
Azure for game development helps you accelerate game development with Azure PlayFab managed services, build your own game services from scratch, or access developer tools and support with the ID@Azure program for indie creators. Reach more players around the world with flexible DevOps tools for every platform and protect your players' data with enterprise-grade security. Azure for game development is built in partnership with Xbox Game Studios and cloud game developers worldwide.
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Accelerate game production with Azure tools for version control and distributed builds. Collaborate seamlessly with your global team in the cloud or with your existing infrastructure using production pipelines for game creators and studios of all sizes.
Learn more about Azure game development pipelines and VMs
Learn how The Coalition Studios used Azure for their build pipeline
Application services
Bring your game title closer to your players and reduce latency for faster and more responsive gaming. Azure has more global datacenter regions (including China) than any other cloud provider. Automate your game server orchestration with Azure PlayFab Multiplayer Servers. Customize and control your own dedicated servers with Azure Virtual Machines. Manage containers with Azure Kubernetes Service for seamless scaling. Simplify your compute tasks with serverless technologies like Azure App Service.
Data services
Bring players together with cross-platform PlayFab Party voice, chat, and translation faster than ever before. PlayFab multiplayer services offer simple yet powerful systems to help your players find each other, compete, communicate, and stay engaged. Grow fearlessly with a set of backend building blocks for your live game.
Data services
Gain real-time insights to understand, grow, and retain your player base. Protect your players with enterprise-level security and GDPR and COPPA compliance. Collect, store, and manage data from your games with Azure PlayFab data and analytics. Or for more customized control, build your own data layer with Azure managed databases.
Data services
Develop successful live games and keep players coming back with PlayFab LiveOps. Build and engage healthy communities by connecting player identities across platforms and enabling user-generated content. Make remote updates to your game store catalog to extend the life of your game and manage your game economy for a better return on investment.
More benefits of Azure for game development
Keep your gamers playing
Safely scale your game experiences with more players and bigger worlds. Azure DDoS Protection mitigates an average of 1,955 attacks per day.
Increase game development productivity and efficiency
Move game production to the cloud, hire more distributed developers, and scale up your build farm by creating more virtual machines in just one click.
Deliver the games your players want
Use analytics, data, AI, and machine learning to understand your players and update game experiences to keep them coming back.
Build better games with best-in-class tools
Connect Perforce Helix Core, Incredibuild, and Unreal Pixel Streaming services, as well as Microsoft Visual Studio, Unreal Engine, Azure PlayFab, and more all in one cloud.
Handcraft every aspect of your game with Azure
Get detailed visual guides for integrating backend components to scale and customize game experiences and infrastructure.
Basic Game Server Hosting on Azure
A step-by-step guide to setting up a basic Azure backend that will host a game server on either Windows or Linux, using a Minecraft server as an example.
Synchronous Multiplayer Using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Make the move from infrastructure to platform as a service (PaaS). AKS is best for studios with development and DevOps resources looking for a solution that is optimized to fully orchestrate microservices.
In-Editor Debugging Telemetry Reference Architecture
As you develop with Visual Studio, improve your game by piping gameplay data from a small sample of players into game engines like Unreal Engine and Unity.
Multiplayer Serverless Matchmaker
Learn how to deploy a Multiplayer serverless matchmaker.
Non-relational Leaderboard Reference Architecture
Learn how to implement a leaderboard that uses Azure Cache for Redis in tandem with another database.
Resources and documentation
Managed game development services
Cloud game production
Get the latest Azure for gaming news and resources
Check out Microsoft Game Dev
Discover all the solutions built for game developers to tackle the biggest challenges and set up game studios of all sizes for long-term success.
Trusted by game studios of all sizes
Hello Games brought No Man's Sky to millions with Azure
Read how indie developer Hello Games used Azure tools and services to run the incredibly popular No Man's Sky.
Record-breaking Fall Guys scaled faster with Azure
"Fall Guys exceeded all expectations at launch. It sold more than 11 million copies on Steam alone and ranked as the most downloaded PlayStation Plus title ever. Azure provided all the reassurance we needed to scale elastically and quickly."
Adam Fletcher, Chief Technology Officer, Fall Guys
The Coalition scaled with cloud build pipelines
The Coalition developers utilized Incredibuild’s process-level virtualization technology to scale Azure performance. They were ultimately able to deploy 700 cores, significantly reducing shader and code compilation times.
Minecraft Realms migrated from AWS to Azure
The migration of Minecraft Realms from one cloud platform to another was a massive undertaking that the team would not have considered pursuing if not for Azure's robust toolset. The process was completely invisible to most players.
Flight Sim built a cloud-native living world
Learn how Flight Simulator built a cloud-native living world using Azure scalable solutions for computation, distribution, and services as a backbone.
Multiplayer Servers helped Rainbow Six Siege
Rainbow Six Siege uses Azure Autoscale to keep up with spikes in demand across the globe, ensuring they can give players the performance they need without worrying about provisioning servers.
Explore Azure for gaming partner solutions
Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine is an advanced, real-time 3D creation tool for photoreal visuals and immersive experiences.
Perforce Helix Core
The AAA versioning standard is the only one that scales to meet the needs of game creation.
Incredibuild for the cloud
Accelerate C++ builds and CI cycles while reducing costs by autoscaling spot and on demand instances.
Xbox Game Studios
Attract and engage players with a trusted, inclusive gaming identity and community of more than 100 million users globally.
GitHub Desktop
Whether you're new to GitHub or a seasoned user, GitHub Desktop simplifies your development workflow.
Parsec for Microsoft Teams
Parsec powers the remote workplace for creatives. Access Azure virtual machines with near-zero latency.
Teradici for Azure Virtual Desktops
Enable remote, graphics intensive desktops for game developers with Teradici on Azure.
Frequently asked questions
-
Azure for game development is comprised of several Azure services that act as building blocks for custom game services. Azure PlayFab, also part of Azure for game development, is a complete backend platform that offers ready-to-use managed services for building and operating a live game.
-
The ID@Azure program empowers independent studios, start-up game developers, and individual creators to take full advantage of the cloud to build and grow their game. Join and receive free access to developer tools and support from industry experts in Azure cloud services and across Microsoft.
-
Read a blog post about why a single-player game should have a backend.
-
No—Azure for game development tools and services, including PlayFab, are designed for all platforms, creators, and studio sizes, and are not exclusive to Xbox.
Start using Azure PlayFab
To get started using managed services built for all games of all sizes, sign up for an Azure PlayFab account.
Learn about ID@Azure
The ID@Azure program helps independent studios and individual creators take full advantage of the cloud.