Gamescom is currently in full swing, and of course the Leaseweb gaming experts are present to tell you all about Hosting for Gaming. With that in mind, we thought it would be a good time to showcase one of our esteemed customers, game developer and publisher Reto-Moto.
Reto-Moto is based in Copenhagen, specializing in the creation of innovative online entertainment software. The company was founded in 1997 and instantly created IO Interactive, the joint-venture operation with Nordisk Film which went on to create the multi-million selling Hitman and Freedom Fighters franchises.
In April 2008 the founding members of Reto-Moto left to reform the organization with the intention of taking advantage of the way the gaming industry had evolved since the group’s inception, predominantly via multiplayer focused games. In 2010, Reto-Moto began work on their latest game, Heroes & Generals.
The Challenge
Heroes & Generals differs from other multi-player games (for instance MMO, Massively Multiplayer Online games) in that it merges the formats of a first-person shooter with a strategic campaign layer. Consequently the actions of the first-person shooter are intrinsically linked to the strategic element of the game. Therefore, shortly after Reto-Moto began developing Heroes & Generals, it became clear that the requirements of the new gaming platform would place serious demands on their hosting provider.
Heroes & Generals operates on its own, custom software, developed specifically for the game, meaning that Reto-Moto needed unrestricted access to their servers and a choice as to the type of servers that would be used in order to provide their gamers with the most reliable service possible. Ultimately they were looking for a bespoke hosting service, provided at an affordable price.
Reto-Moto also expected to see steady growth in the number of Heroes & Generals players after the game’s launch. This required a highly flexible and scalable IT infrastructure to manage increasing and fluctuating numbers of gamers playing on the online platform. In addition, having revealed that it would be developing an accompanying iOS and Android app, ‘Heroes & Generals: Mobile Command,’ Reto-Moto was looking for a provider which would have capacity for this expansion onto tablet computers and smartphones. This was particularly important in order to prevent the server from overloading and causing latency problems, as well as ensuring the best possible gaming experience.
The Solution
Having researched the marketplace and received a number of recommendations, Reto-Moto chose global hosting provider, Leaseweb, for hosting their core servers.
Leaseweb had been recommended to Reto-Moto for its stability and security, with its worldwide network ranking among the best in the world, Leaseweb has a highly redundant design, exceptional connectivity and a number of different possibilities for selecting internet paths. Leaseweb was able to offer a responsive global support team, with gaming industry expertise, who would maintain a watchful eye over the network and help address problems before they could cause any issues. This made it the ideal partner for helping the company to launch Heroes & Generals.
In addition, Leaseweb demonstrated the required level of flexibility and scalability that was needed in order to handle peaks and troughs in traffic to the Heroes & Generals platform, as well as the planned expansion of their existing product offering onto mobile and tablet platforms. Leaseweb was also able to provide required access to the servers in order for Reto-Moto to manage the game’s software.
Overall, Reto-Moto believed that Leaseweb would be the perfect partner to support the future expansion of its servers into the US, recognizing that being in partnership with a hosting provider that has both a very established European and US presence would ultimately be invaluable to the operation of Heroes & Generals.
Hans-Henrik Grüner-Pedersen, Reto-Moto’s IT administrator, said: “Factoring in the game’s potential for growth, Leaseweb not only provides the option for global expansion of our servers, but also the capacity to accommodate increasing numbers of gamers and the challenges that brings to our hosting provider.”
Results
Since switching to Leaseweb 11 months ago, Reto-Moto has seen a 40% cost reduction in its dedicated hosting service expenditure.
“We are very impressed with the reduction in the cost of our dedicated hosting provision since we moved our core servers to Leaseweb,” continued Hans-Henrik. “The level of customer service we have received from Leaseweb has been exceptional. They are attentive to our needs and are always on hand should we have any queries. We feel very optimistic about the future of our partnership as we launch Heroes & Generals, and are highly encouraged by Leaseweb’s shared enthusiasm in innovative online gaming platforms.”