Reflections: A Year with Microsoft
Reflections: A Year with Microsoft
It was one year ago that we announced that PlayFab would join the Microsoft family, and what a year it’s been! In just a few short months, we have advanced the platform and we’re already seeing game developers making the most of it.
Microsoft is aggregating the most comprehensive technology stack for game developers, to empower them at every stage from design to publish to optimize and retain, on any device, informed by our decades of experience of delighting gamers globally. PlayFab is central to this and as we said when we began this journey – we believe PlayFab complements Microsoft Azure to give game developers the backend tools they need to build world class games on any platform.
With the combination of PlayFab + Azure, we provide game developers a world-class cloud platform that helps build games faster as well and the intelligence and scale of the cloud to improve upon and grow their games over time.
At the outset, we set the ambitious goal of helping developers on all devices and platforms to reach two billion gamers around the globe. I’m thrilled to share that PlayFab surpassed one billion player accounts last quarter. We knew that there were powerful synergies with existing Microsoft technologies like matchmaking, that we’d need to invest in talent and technology to realize them, and to deliver the functionality that really mattered to the game development community. We’ve made our technology accessible to more developers – whether they’re using our platforms or not – and we’re excited to see the platform grow and to see so much creativity unleashed as a result.
A few highlights of additions to PlayFab this year include:
- Bringing popular Microsoft technologies that have previously been tied only to our platforms to all platforms including matchmaking, user generated content, upgraded commerce engine with double-entry bookkeeping, analytics, and more!
- Launched Multiplayer Servers, Trends Explorer and the ability to put your performance metrics in context with benchmark comparisons
- Extended Game Manager so that it is now available in four additional languages
- Continued to increase the number of platforms supported including Facebook Instant Games and updated plugins for Unreal and Python
- Renewed dedication to helping game developers everywhere with LiveOps education and tools
And there is so much more on the way!
We’re especially proud of our community, which not only creates amazing games like Idle Minor Tycoon, but that actively support each other in our forums. As big gamers ourselves, we get really excited at the launch of new games that use our platform, and the network effect of more developers that not only support each other but who also give input on the tools we create is awesome. This has helped our PlayFab community grow significantly, with twice the number of game developers now using PlayFab.
It has been an amazing year, we’re excited about our future and will continue to be relentless in advancing the ways we can empower the gaming community to reach their full potential.
Come hang out with us at GDC where Microsoft will have our biggest presence yet! Feel free to drop by the booth, the various Microsoft community events or reach out to us in advance at meetplayfab@microsoft.com to schedule a meeting.