Generating global revenue of $213 billion in 2022, the video game industry brings in more money than the movie and music businesses combined.1 Game producers constantly seek to improve processes to increase efficiencies and meet the skyrocketing demand for engaging games. From world-famous studios producing the latest AAA game to independent developers building a regional mobile game, the practice and principles of platform engineering can ensure games are developed on time, on budget, and are on point with players.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, 80% of software engineering organizations will establish platform teams to facilitate application development and delivery.2 Platform engineering curates self-service tools to automate developmental workflows and streamline processes to spin up needed infrastructure, systems, and applications. Below are a handful of ways that a strong platform engineering practice can enable studios to create games that keep their players entertained and their personal information safe.
Safeguard Gamer Funds
With the explosion of mobile gaming, online microtransactions generated $67.94 billion in 2022.3 This massive flow of funds across cloud-based mobile game applications creates a target-rich environment for malicious actors to intercept players’ financial information and funds. Platform engineering can enforce extensive security protocols through infrastructure as code (IaC) when developers build applications and services that process financial data.
Prevent Cheaters
In 2022, the market value of esports reached $1.39 billion.4 To break into this lucrative and growing space, unscrupulous players are willing to cut corners to gain unfair advantages that boost their performance and profile. A favorite cheater tactic is to deploy aim bots and trigger bots to take other players’ in-game positions and automatically fire accurate shots. These bots artificially boost the cheater’s score and greatly frustrate the ethical players. Platform engineering can create easy-to-consume workflows for developers to incorporate stringent anti-cheating bot measures—workflows that ideally apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to adapt and stifle bot retooling and ensure all players experience equal game mechanics.
Keep Revenue Flowing
With the prevalence of in-game purchases, it’s more economical for game studios to focus on maintaining the popularity of their already released titles rather than developing and marketing new games. One avenue to keep games popular is to regularly update with new content, campaigns, and components. Platform engineers can play a crucial role in streamlining processes for game developers, enabling them to quickly incorporate updated materials and ensure that fans remain engaged and continue to make purchases.
Deliver Engaging and Secure Games with F5 and AWS
By applying an extensive solution portfolio from F5, platform engineering teams can optimize the security and reliability of Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services to ensure games are secure, fair, and engaging.
- F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense eliminates performance-enhancing bots that provide players unfair in-game advantages.
- F5 NGINX enables the seamless integration of AWS environments so developers can prolong the lifespans of popular games.
F5 solutions empower platform engineers to help facilitate the development of AWS applications and cloud services that enhance game performance, player experience, and profitability. With AWS-validated competencies in security, MSSP Level-1, container, and networking, F5 boosts cloud-native security, ensuring gamers can play and make in-game purchases with a high level of confidence.
Available in the AWS Marketplace, F5 offers industry-leading solutions that are simple to set up and manage, resulting in accelerated time to value.
Sources:
1 PWC, Perspectives from the Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2022-2026, June 2022
2 Gartner, What is Platform Engineering?, October 2022
3 The Business Research Company, Online Microtransactions Global Market Report 2023, January 2023
4 Research and Markets, Esports Market Size, January 2023
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