Multiplayer gaming is a vast industry. Starting from indie games to AAA titles, you can find several multiplayer game options.
However, to start with, we stick to the official servers hosted by the game studio itself. Sure, that comes with its perks. But, what if you want to have more fun and control?
This is where game hosting servers come in handy.
With your game server, you can have private gaming sessions, set your own rules, hold contests, and do many more things!
Why Should You Host a Game Server?
With official servers, you can create custom sessions. However, the session mainly relies on a peer-to-peer network, with the admin/creator as its host.
While that works fine, it comes with terrible issues if the host’s connection is not stable.
Moreover, it doesn’t get better by having a fast/reliable connection either; there are NAT Types (depends on your ISP), which also affect the game session.
So, the best way to host a custom game session and play uninterrupted is to get a game server.
Does it Make Sense to Host a Game Server?
If you have spent time on custom gaming sessions for any game like CS:GO, Minecraft, Ark, and others, you already know the answer to that.
And, if you are curious, yes, it is totally worth it to host a game server to play custom game modes, private sessions, host contests, and much more!
If you are a gamer, you can build a great community and have a good time with friends. And, if you are a business person looking to monetize a game, it is an excellent opportunity as well.
Are you confused? How?
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard (a video game company) for ~ $69 billion should give you some hints about the gaming industry in general.
Let’s compare it to Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox (a multi-national American media company) for ~ $71 billion in 2019.
So, it is safe to say that the gaming industry is as big as the movie industry and arguably even bigger than that.
Hence, hosting a gamer server as a business can also be profitable.
However, all of that comes with a caveat. It is not easy to set up a game server and host it comfortably to accommodate hundreds of gamers. Moreover, you need to ensure that you have the best possible hardware combination to host the games you want/need.
This is where OVHcloud comes in.
OVHcloud makes it easy to host game servers, whether you want to game or host a game server as a business (including reselling).
Undoubtedly, it is one of the best game server hosting platforms.
But, what exactly does it offer? Why is it a preferred option for game server hosting? We shall discuss the same below.
OVHcloud Offerings
With OVHcloud, you get a wide range of options to choose from. In other words, there’s something for everyone.
To begin with, you get dedicated servers with 500 Mbps public bandwidth to 1 Gbps bandwidth options. The private bandwidth can be extremely limited in budget offerings. But, if you have the budget, it can go up to 50 Gbps.
The CPU options for the dedicated game servers include popular desktop processors like Intel and AMD.
Fortunately, you also get ECC-type memory, ensuring reliability for memory options starting from 32 GB to up to 128 GB. Pretty darn impressive, right? Probably options with higher memory should come in handy for hosting games like Minecraft, which is a memory-hungry game to host.
When it comes to storage, you can choose to go for NVME SSDs and HDDs as per your choice of server. It supports soft RAID configurations and can stack up to 2×960 GB SSD NVMe Or until 2x 4 TB HDD SATA 2x 960 GB SSD NVMe of storage drives.
In a nutshell, whether the game you host requires more processing power/memory, OVHcloud servers should be able to handle everything.
Moreover, they also offer VPS servers, which can prove to be perfect budget options for casual gamers or private game servers.
Of course, when compared to a dedicated server, you do not get the choice to choose a particular processor. But, the VPS servers are scalable up to 8 cores, 32 GB RAM, 640 GB SSD, and 2 Gbps unmetered bandwidth.
To spice things up, it also lets you choose the preferred server region. You get Canada, Germany, UK, France, and Poland as some of the common options. It will vary as per the server configuration.
Now that you have a pretty good idea about the options you have to pick a game server, let me mention some of the reasons why OVHcloud could be your preferred option to host your games:
High-Performance Servers
The server requirements vary as per the game you want to host. However, you can ensure that the game gets enough headroom to handle several concurrent players with a fast processor.
They offer both AMD and Intel-powered servers for dedicated game servers.
You will find options ranging from Intel i7, AMD’s Ryzen 5 3600 to Ryzen 7 5800X.
Considering that you have AMD’s latest-gen processors available (considered as one of the best in its class), you should not have an issue choosing a server that suits your requirements for the best performance. Coupled with optional SSD and HDD upgrades, all that should help you host a wide range of games.
Flexible Options Optimized for Gaming
With OVHcloud, you get various options to host a game server. Whether VPS or a dedicated game server, you get different hosting configurations.
You can also customize the selection, like upgrading the memory, storage, or bandwidth before purchasing a game server.
If you need virtualization to get started with the game server, you also get the option to select among options like Proxmox, VMware ESXi, and Windows Hyper-V Server.
Overall, you should find plenty of options to pick a server optimized to host the game and run it without any hassle.
Value-option for Gamers
OVHcloud also offers VPS hosting solutions that can be used to host some causal gaming sessions as well. While the VPS servers may not be the perfect solution, it is a value option with basic DDoS protection and respectable server performance.
It should be good enough for gamers starting to host a game or private sessions with a limited number of friends connecting to the game server. Like the dedicated gaming servers, you should find plenty of different options to choose from.
Anti-DDoS Game Protection
To step up a notch, OVHcloud offers an exceptional Anti-DDoS protection service for game servers tailored to help you avoid any downtime for the services.
You can set game-specific settings to optimize the protection of your game server.
This is helpful for game servers used for a competition or a robust game testing session. It should also be a unique feature offering for your customers if you plan to use it as a re-seller.
DDoS attacks are pretty standard that can take the server down, resulting in long wait times to play a game. So, with the Anti-DDoS game protection feature, you have an excellent reason to pick OVHcloud for your game servers.
Additional IP Address
While each server comes with a public IPv4 and IPv6 address, you do get the option to rent additional addresses.
Note that you can only rent additional IP addresses up to 256 for a dedicated game server.
Robust Backup Options
Whether you have a dedicated server or something else, you get good backup options with OVHcloud.
Having a backup of your configuration and data saves a lot of time and money. And OVHcloud seems to have excellent offerings in this regard.
When it comes to dedicated game servers, you get a separate 500 GB of storage space that is not attached to your server. If needed, you can expand the backup space as well. You can store any of your configuration files or any other data for backup without consuming the storage space of your game server.
For VPS, you get to backup your data automatically and regularly (without a dedicated storage space). You can also use the snapshot option to take a backup of your VPS at a particular point in time in a few clicks.
Overall, you should not have any issues with OVHcloud regarding backups.
Technical Support
While you may find options cheaper than OVHcloud, you may not get the technical support to fix things for your game server.
And, it can be a daunting task to fix a game server or troubleshoot when required. You will end up with more downtime and frustrated players if you do not have proper support.
OVHcloud provides the option to reach out via email, chat with the advisors, or contact them via telephone to get assistance.
Maximum Uptime / Availability
OVHcloud servers have a service level agreement of 99.90%, which is a safe bet for game servers without any significant downtime.
Whether it is a dedicated game server or VPS, you can expect minimum latency and maximum availability from their service.
The sever locations will differ as per the type of server you choose. However, you get enough server locations to ensure availability and fast connection to a game server.
Intelligent Platform Management Interface
With Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), you can easily monitor and manage your dedicated server irrespective of the operating system, CPU, and firmware.
OVHcloud gives access to this feature where you get a console to monitor and manage the server. You can use the control panel to access the console or the API via its public IP address.
For server administrators, this is an important feature to have.
Optimized Distributions / Operating Systems for Server
It is easy to go with Linux for the most part. But, you can choose from a variety of Linux distributions like CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL, Xubuntu, FreeBSD, OpenSUSE, Arch Linux, Cloud Linux, and Gentoo.
Of course, you do not need hundreds of options for a game server. But, it is good to see the availability of distributions and OSs for a wide range of hosting choices.
You can also choose an administration interface like cPanel, Plesk, or DirectAdmin to manage the server easily.
Choosing the Right Hosting Platform for Game Server Matters
When hosting a game server, you will have to ensure that the players get the best gameplay experience, and for that, you need an excellent hosting platform.
Of course, there are choices for gaming servers tailored for casual and professional requirements. But, OVHcloud serves as the perfect candidate eliminating the need to research and compare various hosting choices.
You get a good experience; you save time looking for the perfect choice and get the best value for your investment!
