Windows Azure, Microsoft’s platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud offering, has been chosen by Korean game designer Webzen to help power its multiplayer online game Arctic Combat.
Since opening its game portal in 2009, Webzen had relied on its own servers to provide a stable gaming experience. However, with increased interest from players around the world, the company found it hard to predict peaks and troughs in demand.
Jihun Lee, head of global publishing at Webzen, said: “When users’ gameplay is not reflected in real-time because of service delays, they quickly lose interest in the game.”
In order to solve this problem for Arctic Combat, the organisation chose to take a hybrid cloud approach, combining its own Windows Server network with the Windows Azure platform.
“The hybrid cloud model we used enabled us to choose between the private cloud and the public cloud for game servers depending on the region so that we could provide gamers in each region with the best service,” said Lee.
Moving to a hybrid model has also reduced lag in the game to the point of being unnoticeable, the company claimed.
“By offering speeds more than 2.5 times faster than a private server, Windows Azure assures players that the tension of the battlefield is not interrupted by technical issues,” said Lee.
“The tension of the gameplay can be maintained only if the online service is reliable. With this hybrid cloud model, Arctic Combat users are reporting no lags,” Lee added.
