Frequently asked questions

Metaplay is the only backend that's purpose-built to handle every stage of production of a top-tier mobile game, from your first line of code right through to liveops and player support.

In practice, that means Metaplay comes with everything you need not only to get started making your game, but also to ensure you can scale it reliably, and serve your players better than any other game can once you make it big.

When you start developing your game, Metaplay's built-in workflows and tooling help you work better and faster, while features common to top-grossing games are built-in if you need them, saving you more precious development time.

Once your game is shipped, you can rely on Metaplay's robust and battle-tested cloud infrastructure to support you as you scale. And when you get to the top, Metaplay has the tools you'll need to quickly and effectively operate your game and serve millions of players per day, like data management pipelines, over-the-air update capabilities, and much more.

The best part? Because Metaplay is fully customisable and extensible, it's easy to add new features and modify existing ones whenever you need to.

And importantly, because Metaplay ships as source code deployed into your own cloud, you'll always be in full control over your game and your data. That means you'll never have to worry about your game not running should anything ever happen to us.

Ultimately, making games with Metaplay is the only way to guarantee the exact same security, flexibility and control as a custom top-tier in-house backend, without having to make or manage it yourself.

The power of the Metaplay SDK lies in its adaptability, flexibility, and extensibility. Metaplay is the ideal solution for making any kind of game, as long as you've got aspirations to take it to the top. 

You can use Metaplay to make anything ranging from single-player games with server-side persisted state and cheat-proof game logic, to games with deep meta or social features like guilds and live events. Metaplay's server-authoritative backend also makes it an ideal solution for real-time games like builders with RTS battles, card games, and arena brawlers.

Whether you're making a merge game, a match-3 game, another type of puzzle game, a build-and-battle game, or anything in between, Metaplay has everything you need to ensure you realise your creative vision, and build something incredible.  

If you haven't heard of us yet, it's for good reason. Since our inception in 2019 we’ve mostly been operating in the shadows here in Helsinki, working with a few hand-picked game studios to build a game-making platform that they can't live without. The end result is something that we (and they) can confidently say is better than anything else out there. 

Our goal has always been to take Metaplay global and help developers far and wide achieve their creative vision, and now, the time has come to make that happen. 

We couldn't be more excited to introduce Metaplay to the world, and we can't wait for you to experience the incredible things that you can do with it. 

We understand that many game developers are hesitant to use third-party backends. That’s why we’ve done everything we can to remove vendor risk, and ensure you feel comfortable making and running games with Metaplay not just now, but in the future too.

Crucially, Metaplay ships as source code deployed into your own cloud. That means that you’ll always be in full control of your game and your data, and should anything ever happen to Metaplay, your game will keep on running.

So, while it might be risky to run your game off other third-party backends, you can rest assured that that's not the case with Metaplay. Making games with Metaplay is just as reliable as using an in-house backend, but with all the added benefits of having pre-made features, tools, structures and workflows that help you ship better, faster. 

Since launching Metaplay in 2019, we’ve almost exclusively focused on working with Finland-based studios in order to help us refine our product and make sure it’s perfect to take global.

We’re proud to be working with some of the top studios in Finland, including Metacore, the makers of Merge Mansion; Dodreams, makers of Drive Ahead!; and Playsome, makers of Friends and Dragons. We're also working with a number of up-and-coming studios that are developing as-yet-unannounced projects with Metaplay.

Getting started is easy. Book a demo with one of our technical specialists here, or sign up to the Metaplay portal to try the SDK.

Metaplay consists of:

• A Unity client library packed with features to make game programming smoother, like shared client-server logic, workflow tooling, client prediction, offline development, and more.
• A robust and scalable backend that's designed especially for the demands of top-tier mobile games.
• A devops environment with configurations and tooling to provision and manage cloud deployments. And you don't even need to look under the hood (unless you want to, of course).
• A first-of-its-kind liveops dashboard for managing multiple areas of your game in one place, such as configuration and player support. Use it to segment your players and run A/B tests, define economies and ship over-the-air updates, and much, much more.

Additionally, the Metaplay SDK ships with ready-made solutions ranging from localization to matchmaking, leagues and leaderboards, content delivery and guilds, and everything in between.

Metaplay is delivered as an SDK for the Unity engine. This means you can make games using the C# programming language just like before, if you were already using Unity. Whether you're a seasoned Unity developer or just starting out, our documentation has a wide array of guides and tutorials at your disposal.

For the time being, Metaplay is focused on helping game developers who work with Unity. But we may extend this in future, so keep checking back.

For the time being, no. Metaplay is built for making games with Unity only. But watch this space, because we may be adding compatibility for more platforms and game engines soon.

Even single-player mobile games need online features, and we can help you with that. Metaplay can empower you to deliver content, generate analytics, and create a secure and cheat-proof gameplay loop with reliable purchases and rewards systems. 

Yes! The Metaplay SDK comes packed with a full suite of tools to help you keep your game content-rich, maximise your game’s retention, and boost monetisation.

Schedule and manage events easily, ship over-the-air updates and A/B test anything, right out of the box. As your game grows, you’ll be able to tailor Metaplay’s powerful custom data pipelines to suit your game's needs and leverage deep segmentation tools to deliver personalised gameplay experiences that will keep your players coming back, time and time again.

Check out Metaplay for product and liveops to learn more.

Yes. And because our player support tools are deeply integrated into your game’s backend and tied to player data and behaviour, Metaplay makes managing your players easier than ever.

See easy-to-understand event timelines, get a snapshot of IAP history and view your player’s game state, all in one place. You can also send your players messages directly through Metaplay’s in-game messaging tool, transfer accounts between devices, and even export raw save files for first-hand debugging. And if there’s something your team is missing, the Metaplay dashboard is easy to extend and customise in-house.

Go to Metaplay for player support to learn more. 

Using Metaplay’s backend makes it near-impossible to cheat. Every line of gameplay code is run both on the client and the server for validation, and thanks to our server-authoritative architecture, client-side malicious logic won’t fly. This includes the game loop and other sensitive logic, like purchases, logins, and social interactions.

By integrating Metaplay into your in-game purchases cycle, you get extra safety, and can take advantage of Metaplay’s cheat-proof architecture, as well as an integrated workflow where adding new products is as simple as adding a row to a spreadsheet.

We’ve been in this game a while, and we’ve seen other game backends be acquired by larger companies, only to be neglected by their buyers or run into the ground. Out of nowhere, that’s meant developers have had to scramble to migrate their entire game from one service to another in order to keep their games running.

We don’t think that’s very fair. That’s why Metaplay is deployed into your own cloud, and you own and control at as if it were your own backend. It means we can never pull the rug, and leaves you safe in the knowledge that no matter what happens to us, you’re in complete control of your game and your data.

Sure. You’re not locked in to using Metaplay for life, so if you like, you can transfer your game to any other (or your own) backend at any time.

Metaplay Managed Services extend Metaplay's original offering to provide hosting of game's servers by Metaplay.

The plans cover both development environments only (for games before launch) as well as full set of development, staging, and production environments for live games.

Metaplay Managed Services are priced according to a game’s development stage, and by extension, the cloud environments provisioned to run it.

Access to Metaplay Support is not included, though this can be added as a bolt-on.

Games in development stage (before launch) pay €995/month to use the Metaplay SDK and have two development environments in the Metaplay cloud.

Production and staging environments are priced additionally at €990/month (combined), plus a variable DAU-based license fee of €2.95 per 1000 DAU after the first 5000 DAU.

Check out our pricing page for more information

Metaplay Support is available as an additional bolt-on on two distinct SLAs: Working hours only with first-response guaranteed within one business day (€1500/month); or 24/7 availability with first-response guaranteed within 8 hours (€5000/month).

Community-based suppport is available through the Metaplay Discord at no extra cost.

Yes, you can download the Metaplay SDK and evaluate it in your own time, either with one of our sample projects or integrate it into your game.

Once you're ready to deploy your servers to the cloud, you can choose your Metaplay plan on our pricing page.

At the moment Metaplay contracts are billed monthly and sent by invoice, which can be paid directly from a studio’s bank account. In the future we’ll be adding functionalities to accept a wider form of payments, such as credit and debit cards.