Future of GSP industry?

[suhailc]

Hi all,

 

I just wanted to get some views from other GSPs about where they think the GSP market is going.

 

What are the most profitable games for you currently?

What do you think will happen to them in 2/3 years time?

Overall views of the GSP industry?

 

All input will be much appreciated!

 

Regards,

Suhail.

[Dennis]

Overall views of the GSP industry?

New companies will try to get some customers by offering the same service for a low price. This is commonly done by hosts owned by young people (or kids, in some situations).

 

Game hosting is no gold mine. Not even a junk yard.

[blackracoon]

I wouldn't say that..

 

I think it has room, but if you're the top 10% of comanies. As with any industry, find a niche, and try and become the best at it. E.g. Terraria or Pure ARk servers. Rather then be the biggest with and spread yourself too thin at the start.

 

I think the industry still has potential for those doing above but most don't follow that rule and just do as Dennis mentioned.

[dimitrifrom31]

If you take the time to do your job seriously you got a future. If you are looking for high profits on short term you will die.

[NRTServers]

In Summer months...the industry always does a increase. Take Minecraft over the last couple of years.

 

It was swamped with NEW GSP's popping up all over the place...gaining clients ..

then when school started again...It would be a fiasco as the new GSP's formed over the summer closed shop and leave the masses twisting in the wind.

 

Now..they come looking for the rock bottom price they had with the GSP that rooked them...wanting the same price... LOL...not this fella...

 

It has been like this every year for the last 10 since I opened up...it will never change as long as these summer tire kickers can get cheap dedicated servers...

 

Load them up...and have week-end summer money to spend

 

Dave

[flanknet]

A lot of former game server companies that I used to utilize as a customer have all folded up shop. The main reason I've started my own GSP is mostly due to a college project that I am trying to complete. Once the project is over, I will keep the business open so long as I am close to my goals. Right now it's extremely slow, but it's getting better.

[NRTServers]

I have always stayed away from the FPS and Indie games and let others do there thing.

 

With NRT being in a niche market for what we do, I don't want to get into the wars for clients that most of you folks go through to stay profitable.

 

Saying that...I have had declining sales since summer arrived...really we do every year.

 

I may have to learn some of the Steam games...price them for what I think they should be to make a profit..

 

I have a total of 19 e3's and 2 sitting empty...any suggestions for a nice reliable FPS to offer?

 

Hope all are doing well

 

It is a tough market if you sleep at the wheel

 

Dave

 

NRT

[Dennis]

We're one of the biggest GSPs located in Denmark. We haven't put a single dime, dollar, krone, euro or anything else in our own pocket yet. Plus, we're even one of the most expensive in Denmark.

 

Running any kind of business in Denmark is worth nothing, unless you can be very successful and earn tons of cash. VAT in Denmark is around 25%, and then taxes are around 50%. We have a bunch of dedicated servers (around 10, but only 6 which is used for game servers and voice servers), and we have to pay for hosting of those servers. Sometimes it's needed that we expand, and all of our profit goes to that.

 

 

We're running a few hundred servers, and yet after 2.5 years there's around $1,000 in profit. Then we need to pay taxes, and we pay around $800 in VAT.

Had we been running Prima Servers illegally (by not paying taxes), then it would probably be highly profitable, and I don't think I would've needed to work 2 jobs (besides being CEO of Prima Servers) while studying.

 

I don't know how taxes are in other countries, but from a Dane's pov, the future of GSP industry is dark.

[NRTServers]

Not that any-one would be honest enough to admit it...

 

But I wonder how many new GSP's and established for that matter, Run legitimate Operating system software beside Linux.

 

My SPLA with Microsoft..is a good chunk of change each month or for the other matter of being a registered business in there country.

 

I would rather pay Microsoft there share...I imagine the fine would be pretty hefty if caught running hacked OS software..

[flanknet]

NRt, honestly, I am a new GSP that is solely Linux at the moment. It's not because I think Linux is the cheaper way to go. I use Linux because for a lot of the games, Linux works better. The moment I have enough clients to require / increase the need for Windows, I will have a Windows box.

[NRTServers]

NRt, honestly, I am a new GSP that is solely Linux at the moment. It's not because I think Linux is the cheaper way to go. I use Linux because for a lot of the games, Linux works better. The moment I have enough clients to require / increase the need for Windows, I will have a Windows box.

 

Good luck with your venture...wish you nothing but the greatest of luck!

 

Well..consider your self lucky if 99% of your company can and does host using Linux.

 

I have never had to host any game servers using a selected Distro.

 

All our stuff uses Server 2003 & 2008....

 

Good luck with your business moving foreword..

 

Dave

NRT

[proclan]

I have always stayed away from the FPS and Indie games and let others do there thing.

 

With NRT being in a niche market for what we do, I don't want to get into the wars for clients that most of you folks go through to stay profitable.

 

Saying that...I have had declining sales since summer arrived...really we do every year.

 

I may have to learn some of the Steam games...price them for what I think they should be to make a profit..

 

I have a total of 19 e3's and 2 sitting empty...any suggestions for a nice reliable FPS to offer?

 

Hope all are doing well

 

It is a tough market if you sleep at the wheel

 

Dave

 

NRT

 

 

There are other ways of increasing your profit you could buy one single Dell R700 Dual Quad X5650 with 48-96 gig memory in it and it would handle more games than 3 of the E3 boxes you have. The x5650 is an older cpu but it is still a good workhorse for gaming getting the most bang for the buck. I know you cater to the racing fans but if your looking to host other games the E3 chassis ( only supports one cpu) just cant handle enough games to be very profitable in my opinion. I see some minecraft host advertising the E2650 cpu which is fine for minecraft but that cpu would not hold up very well hosting Arma, ns2, Ark and some other servers the ghz is just too low.

 

X5650 running 48 gig memory and 32 services running:

http://i.imgur.com/MmX5Agi.png

 

resources with room to spare, there's 9 resource hog Ark servers running:

http://i.imgur.com/kbASLFp.png

[SirEb]

Well,

 

from my perspective i see many gsps starting as mentioned in the summer period, most of them are gone one year later leaving angry customers behind.

 

Only the ones who are good enough with service and support are holding longer than that period.

 

@DennisMidjord

 

so 10 dedicated servers and several hundreds services on there ? Wonder how that fit, or are those voice servers?

[NRTServers]

If there is one thing I have learned over the years...Is you can't afford to over crowd a server with clients..If that is your business model...be expected to spend your time with support tickets complaining of lag and generally a bad experience for your users.

 

All it takes is one or two users that spend there money with what you advertize..and do have a terrible time trying to game...your name is mud..

 

It is better to have less clients per server so every-one stays happy and enjoys what you offer..than around and around with support tickets that take every-ones time.

 

But that is just my plan...I guess you do what you can with what you have available.

 

Dave

[Raizio]

If it is one thing I have learned over the years...If you can't afford to not over crowd a server with clients..be expected to spend your time with support tickets complaining of lag and generally a bad experience for your users.

 

All it takes is one or two users that spend there money with what you advertize..and do have a terrible time trying to game...your name is mud..

 

It is better to have less clients per server so every-one stays happy and enjoys what you offer..than around and around with support tickets that take every-ones time.

 

But that is just my plan...I guess you do what you can with what you have available.

 

Dave

 

I share this mentality 100%

[NRTServers]

I don't know if it is mentality as much as just plain common sense.

 

To have a server over loaded with clients...and running beyond a safe

and reliable parameters...would make me and most others that have been around...lose sleep worrying about if the clients will be around next month..

[proclan]

Your not over crowding a server by using a different setup your missing the point, it's like having a moped next to a Harley. The E3 is a nice cpu but they never utilized it in a dual cpu setup so it is limited in capacity. I just offered some advise everybody has there own way of doing things. If you look at the resource stats that box is not overloaded if you think 27% cpu usage is, but if your just renting boxes from somebody that puts a cage in a data center then your choices are limited as well.

[Raizio]

You're forgetting a fundamental difference here.

 

E3's have a way higher core clock speed.

Something high tickrate source + Unreal engine 3 based servers really really enjoy.

 

You're talking about a ghz difference per core.

And these games don't tend to care if you have 20 cores to throw at it. They won't take em.

 

All in all it depends on what your focus is at the current time of your gameserver catalog.